Seeking to pull ahead in advanced plastics recycling, UK invests £20m in innovative recycling systems

In the UK, the recycling industry has received an unprecedented funding boost in the form of a £20m by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) in four advanced recycling plants.

These plants will increase the available recycling capacity in the UK and expand the range of plastics being recycled, as opposed to being sent to landfill or incineration, or exported overseas for disposal. 

The technologies include a hydrothermal liquefaction process to convert waste plastic into chemicals and oils for use in the manufacture of new plastic, a thermal cracking procedure to transform end-of-life plastics into hydrocarbon oil that can be used in plastic production, and a depolymerising facility that extracts colour from waste allowing easier reuse. 

The four projects  - from Veolia, ReNew ELP, Recycling Technologies and Poseidon Plastics - won their funding by submitting applications outlining prototypes for innovative new recycling technology as part of a UKRI competition launched in December 2019. The grants will now help them turn theory into practice, bringing the plants online and scaling up their operations.

Working in collaboration with Unilever, Charpak Ltd and HSSMI, the Veolia project will develop the UK's first dual PET bottle and tray recycling facility (supported by a digital twin created by HSSMI), capable of recycling 100% of clear rigid PET in a closed-loop system. Unilever will explore the use of the non-food contact recycled PET produced from this facility in its home and personal care range, so avoiding the use of food contact grade material in these non-food products. Charpak Ltd will use the flakes produced in its trays, making tray to tray recycling a reality.

ReNew ELP proposes to set up a plant centred on a Catalytic Hydrothermal Reactor (Cat-HTR) at Wilton, Teesside. Once up and running, the plant would convert 20,000 tonnes per annum, increasing to 80,000tpa on site completion, of end of life plastic into chemicals and oils for use in the production of new virgin grade plastics including naphtha, waxes, and a bitumen-like residue suitable for use in road construction. 

The three-year project involving Recycling Technologies, together with renewably-sourced diesel and chemicals supplier Neste and consumer goods manufacturer Unilever, was the recipient of  a £3.1m grant from UKRI for a chemical recycling plant that uses thermal cracking to recycle a wide range of plastic waste that cannot be recycled by conventional methods. The plant is designed to process 7,000tpa of hard-to-recycle mixed plastic waste, producing 5,200tpa of a hydrocarbon oil - Plaxx - which can replace crude oil in plastics production. Under an earlier agreement dating from March this year between Recycling Technologies and Neste, the latter invested €5 million in the recycling technologyI and signed a Plaxx offtake agreement with Recycling Technologies.
In the present project, the Plaxx produced by Recycling Technologies will be delivered to Neste to analyse and test its quality and suitability for further upgrading into drop-in feedstock for the production of virgin-quality plastics. Joining the existing collaboration, Unilever will contribute its expertise in design for recycling for packaging to the project.
“As part of this collaboration, we’ve committed to looking at the design of our products for greater recyclability, as well as the possibility to use the recycled material back in our product packaging, which would create the end market and value for the materials,” said Sebastian Munden,  executive vice president, Unilever UK & Ireland. The alliance will demonstrate new added-value applications for hard-to-recycle waste plastic materials, such as films, sachets and pouches, using them to create output that can be used to make new packaging.

Poseidon Plastics aims to commercialise its novel enhanced recycling technology through theconstruction of a 15,000 tonne per annum PET recycling facility. Partnering with waste collection and mechanical recycling experts Biffa and PET resin producers Alpek Polyester UK and DuPont Teijin Films UK, this project aims to demonstrate how post-consumer and post-industrial packaging, film and other hard-to-recycle PET wastes can be chemically recycled back into new consumer end-use goods. Through collaboration with the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence at the University of York and polyester fibre users O’Neills Irish International Sports Company and GRN Sportswear (trading as Presca Sportswear), the consortium further aims to demonstrate and optimise a closed-loop, circular economy for all polyester materials.

The funding forms part of UKRI’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging (SSPP) challenge, which aims to increase the amount of recyclable plastic packaging and improve UK productivity in plastics, leading to a reduction in plastic waste entering the environment.