UK recycling specialist Viridor has signed its third uptake agreement for recycled plastics in less than a month, this time striking a five-year deal with fresh food packaging expert Klöckner Pentaplast (kp).
Under the contract, announced 4 Dec, Viridor will supply 8 kilotonnes of post-consumer recycled PET to kp from its a recycling facility that is currently under construction in Avonmouth, near Bristol.
Strengthening “a long-standing partnership” between the two companies the supply deal is expected to make kp the largest rPET buyer in the UK.
Viridor’s £65m (€75.8m) Avonmouth plant, scheduled to go into operation in 2021, will become the biggest multi-polymer reprocessing plant in the UK, with an expected production capacity of 60 kilotonnes per annum (ktpa) at the end of its first year of production.
For its first year, the unit will recycle 81ktpa of feedstock, but it expects to increase its processing capacity to 89ktpa and its output to 63ktpa by year three.
The plant will process plastics from post-consumer bottles, pots, tubs and trays in PET, HDPE and PP materials.
The facility will be powered by a £252m (€293m) energy recovery unit, which will generate 282GWh of power from 320 kilotonnes of non-recyclable post-consumer waste diverted from landfill.
Both kp and Viridor are members of the UK Plastics Pact, which sets the target of at least 30% average recycled content across all plastic packaging by 2025.
“We are thrilled to announce this extended agreement with Viridor, which has been a significant partner of kp’s for many years,” said Adam Barnett, president of the food packaging division at kp.
The company, Barnett noted, wants to take its partnership with Viridor to “the next level of circularity”, as it targets closed loop tray-to-tray recycling.
“As a strong and stable end market, kp is driving change at scale for a circular future,” he added.
Viridor secures another supply deal with major brand
