Nestlé UK and Ireland have loaned £7 million to a new recycling facility in Durham called Impact Recycling which aims to tackle hard-to-recycle plastics.
Impact Recycling will aim to process hard-to-recycle flexible plastics, typically used in food packaging, into pellets which can be used to make new flexible products, such as postbags and refuse bags.
Nestlé has agreed to provide Impact Recycling with a £7 million loan. The site is set to be operational in late summer 2024.
The recycling process, known as the Baffled Oscillation Separation System (BOSS), sorts the waste plastics by spinning them in water so different materials either sink or float depending on their density.
Nestlé says the site will have the capacity to recycle 25,000 tonnes of flexible plastic into pellets which can be used to replace virgin plastic films in construction and agriculture, as well as to make bin bags.
We are dedicated to ensuring our packaging can have multiple lives and doesn’t end up as waste in landfill.
Impact Recycling, which has also received a grant from Innovate UK, has the potential to recycle more than the amount of flexible plastic packaging Nestlé UK and Ireland places on the market, the food & beverage company says.
KitKat wrappers, Purina pet food pouches, Rowntree confectionery sharing bags and Nestlé Cereal bags, are planned to be collected from major supermarket collection points so they can be recycled.
Sokhna Gueye, Head of Packaging at Nestlé UK & Ireland, commented: “At Nestlé, we are dedicated to ensuring our packaging can have multiple lives and doesn’t end up as waste in landfill. Supporting innovative technologies like this is just one of the many steps we are taking towards achieving this goal.
“In the UK and Ireland, our efforts continue at pace to ensure as close to 100% of our packaging is designed for recycling by 2025, and we continue to work towards all of our packaging being recyclable or reusable.”