Home grown investment in technology shows UK’s commitment to responsible recycling

Gareth Wallwork, Director, Roydon Group

Currently much of the UK’s plastic waste is shipped overseas to places like the Far East for granulating and re-processing, as there is a lack of investment in the technology and infrastructure to manage the waste in the UK. Virtually all types of plastics can be recycled or recovered, however the extent to which they are recycled depends upon technical, economic and logistical factors.

Defra has set an increase in the recycling target for plastic packaging waste from the current 32% to 42% by 2017 (which equates to an increase of approximately 180,000 tonnes on the current target of 593,000 tonnes for 2012 based on current data). However, focusing purely on targets fails to address the key goal of securing valuable plastic resources that can be recycled; by ignoring the methods and technology required to recover them, while instead concentrating on the diversion of plastics from landfill.

Many material recycling facilities are simply not equipped to sort the numerous types of plastic products in use at present, tending to focus on quantity rather than quality and are designed to just bale all plastic together. This generally means exporting the resultant product to the Far East (426,000 tonnes in 2011 or 70% of the total) for sorting; thus losing this valuable resource and employment from the UK market.

Recognising the importance of having technologically advanced equipment in the UK that can sort and grade different types of plastics, the Roydon Group is opening a state of the art plastic sorting facility, based in Greater Manchester, with machinery capable of sorting 1,000 tonnes of household plastic recyclables per week.

This sorting line can separate paper and cans from the plastic so that the plastic waste can then be sorted and graded for recycling. It is the first step in bringing the recycling process full-circle, with used plastic packaging sorted and reprocessed domestically, and then utilised to make items such as microwaveable trays, black bin bags, building films, bottles and drainage pipes.

This innovative recycling technology will help organisations comply with today’s environmental challenges, increase profitability, reduce operational costs, and minimise the amount of plastic waste being sent to landfill.

The Roydon Group is currently working in partnership with local authorities, material recycling facilities and the waste plastic industry to encourage greater plastics recovery within the UK.

www.roydon.com

As published in Local Authority Waste & Recycling (LAWR), August 2012