UK plastics recycling pioneer Recycling Technologies is working with Swindon borough council and a power and a waste management company to set up an advanced plastic recycling facility (aPRF) in Swindon, the company's home base.
The move follows the council's recent adoption of a 10-year waste strategy, which focuses on using new technologies to increase recycling rates.
As part of the strategy, the council is now reviewing its current plastics recycling infrastructure and working with RT and Public Power Solutions to set up the aPRF facility.
In a 7 Jan statement, Recycling Technologies said the partnership was inspired by the Lodestar report, which highlights the potential for waste site operators to recycle “all plastics”. The report was published by RT in December last year in collaboration with global stakeholders such as Unilever, Mars, Danone and Coca-Cola.
“Swindon… is hoping to also be the home of England's first aPRF which includes our RT7000 feedstock recycling machine,” said Adrian Griffiths, CEO and founder of Recycling Technologies.
“We are committed to having a Lodestar-inspired facility in Swindon by 2020, in order to make Swindon the leading council in England for plastic recycling,” said Bernie Brannan, managing director, Public Power Solutions Ltd.
Recycling Technologies has developed a process that recycles “all plastics”, including plastic film, laminated food pouches and crisp packets.
Targeting markets in the UK and Europe, the patented chemical recycling machine RT7000 converts plastics to Plaxx oil, which can be used in new plastics production, as well as very low sulphur fuels and waxes. Modular and self-contained, the machines are designed to be installed at existing waste centres, thus offering a diversion solution for hitherto unrecyclable plastics that are currently sent to landfill or are incinerated.
If finalised, Swindon will be the second site in the UK to use RT machinery, after Binn Ecopark waste site in Perthshire, Scotland which is expected to install the first RT7000 commercial machine this year.
