Over one year since The UK’s Plastics Pact was launched Veolia UK, a founding member, has announced a further £1 million investment in it’s Dagenham Plastic Recycling facility as demand ever increases.
The new investment has provided a new granulator, a new processing kit and upgraded the washing process allowing a 20% increase in food grade production responding to the increasing need and interest of manufactures that are part of the pact.
Richard Kirkman, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer said “The UK Plastics Pact has given a boost to the industry that was needed to make plastic recycling a reality. Since the launch we have seen demand increase and so we had to ensure our site was working efficiently to meet demand.
“This is an opportunity for an industry that is getting bad press to become sustainable and this investment shows our commitment to make this a reality. It will help to increase the amount the UK recycles and encourage recyclable materials and designs for products, and discourage the use of harder to recycle options such as black plastic and polystyrene yogurt pots.
“We still have a long way to go to 2025 but it’s extremely positive. Recycling is a chain of events from manufacturer, consumer to recycler and we need each part of the chain to make changes to have successful scalable results.”
Veolia has also done a number of other projects in support of the Pact:
Working in partnership with Unilever they have introduced a new type of black pigment for its personal care bottles that can be detected by Veolia’s infra-red scanners and therefore recycled
Unveiled a reverse vending machine in Kings Cross to allow members of the public to recycle bottles and receive a voucher worth 10% off the bill at Leon
Internationally Veolia is part of the cross value chain Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), currently made up of nearly thirty member companies, and this has committed over $1.0 billion with the goal of investing $1.5 billion over the next five years to help end plastic waste in the environment. The Alliance will develop and bring to scale solutions that will minimize and manage plastic waste and promote solutions for used plastics by helping to enable a circular economy. The Alliance membership represents global companies and located throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
For more information about working with Veolia and utilising recycled plastic visit www.veolia.co.uk .
