World's First Mixed Plastic Bottle Recycling Plant

Thursday, June 26, 2008

London, 26th June 08: Today marks an important step in plastic recycling. A revolutionary plant in London that is the first to recycle waste plastic bottles back into useful food packaging material will open. Closed Loop Recycling will take 35,000 tonnes of recovered plastic bottles, including milk and soft drink bottles and turn them back into recycled raw material for new food and drink packaging. The plant will divert a significant amount of waste from landfill. The first customers to purchase the recycled food grade plastic from the plant include Coca-Cola Enterprises, Marks & Spencer, Nampak Plastics Europe and Solo Cup (Europe).

The plant has been funded by private equity, with Foresight Group providing the majority of financing alongside seed funding from Closed Loop Environmental Solutions in Australia and grants from WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme), the Government-backed waste minimisation and recycling body, and the London Development Agency. The company has secured banking facilities from Allied Irish Bank.

"This plant represents the evidence that the UK is undergoing a recycling revolution - until now there has been no facility to recycle bottles back into plastic food packaging", explains Chris Dow, Managing Director, Closed Loop Recycling. "The industry and consumer are now viewing recycled plastic in a completely new light, it is no longer waste, it is a valuable resource. In addition, each plastic bottle that we recycle reduces the bottle's carbon footprint by around 25%*."

Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO of WRAP comments: 'WRAP is currently focused on a range of key developments which are delivering a step change in plastics recycling in the UK. The new Closed Loop Recycling London plant represents an exciting and significant move forward in the UK's ability to recycle plastic, which saves natural resources, reduces carbon and delivers real action on climate change."

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "Londoners want to be green and recycle more, so it is welcome news that this state-of-the-art recycling plant in Dagenham is now open to recycle tonnes of the capital's plastic waste that was previously destined for landfill. This is good for London and good for the environment."
Andrew Page, a Partner with Foresight Group, said, "Foresight is very pleased to be involved with Closed Loop and believes that the plant, the first of its kind in the UK, is leading the way in providing the infrastructure needed to address the growing corporate and consumer demand for improved recycling in the UK."

Coca Cola Enterprises (CCE) is supporting the scheme, as part of its wider environmental commitments.  Hubert Patricot, Managing Director Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd comments: "Sustainable packaging is something we are committed to. We have a goal to use on average 25% recycled PET across CCE's European operations by the end of 2010. We are delighted that Closed Loop Recycling's plant in London will help us purchase recycled PET here in the UK. It's very encouraging to see a process that allows waste to be collected from UK consumers, reprocessed locally, with the recycled product being put back to use in our factories across the UK."

Sir Stuart Rose, Chief Executive, Marks & Spencer, said "Recycling is an important way for us all to reduce our impact on the environment and the Closed Loop Recycling plant is a major step forward for recycling in the UK. We will be able to send some of our Food to Go packaging waste to the plant for recycling and use even more recycled plastic in our M&S packaging. Reducing the amount of waste from our stores and using more sustainable sources for our packaging is also one of the main aims of our new 'eco-plan', Plan A."

Other early supporters of the project and amongst the first customers of the new plant are Nampak Plastics, Solo Cup (Europe) and Reynolds Food Packaging.  All are major suppliers to the food packaging and food service sectors.

Tony Waters, Managing Director of Solo Cup (Europe) Says: "We recognised immediately the benefits of sourcing high quality food grade recycled PET from a local source and we are pleased to also co-sponsor the office recycling scheme with Marks and Spencer.  This offers consumers, operators and manufacturers a genuine closed loop for food packaging.  It's a major step forward for our business."

James Crick, Business Development Director for Nampak Plastics, adds: "The agreement with Closed Loop Recycling to supply Nampak with up to 6000 tonnes each year of recycled HDPE is an important step towards recycled content HDPE milk bottles being widely available in the UK for the first time.  About 80% of milk sold by retailers is in plastic containers demonstrating its popularity with consumers due to its strength and practicality. We are committed to supplying all our UK manufactured HDPE milk bottles with up to 10% recycled content during 2008/09 and bottle to bottle recycling (HDPE milk bottles back into HDPE milk bottles) presents the most sustainable and efficient means of recycling."

Using leading edge technologies, Closed Loop Recycling will turn what may have been previously exported to developing countries at low value or discarded into landfill into new material suitable for food and drink packaging. This creates a circle of constantly recycled plastic and the "Closed Loop" philosophy.  Closed Loop Recycling has already announced its expansion within the UK demonstrating its position as a leader in high grade plastics recycling.

Notes to editors

l New research from WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) reveals recycling household plastics can be cost-effective as well as environmentally friendly.  The research showed that, on balance, the best environmental option is to invest in technology to produce high quality recycled plastics.

l There are two main types of plastic bottles that are easily recycled: PET (used for soft drinks and water bottles) and HDPE (milk bottles). Closed Loop Recycling will receive 35,000 tonnes of these types of plastic each year - enough to go around the coastline of the British Isles twice or fill Wembley Stadium one and half times

l Closed Loop has also developed long term relationships with Veolia Environmental Services for the supply of plastic waste. Veolia receives the household waste plastic from local authorities, who in turn have collected it from householders via kerbside and bring banks.

l New recycled HDPE technology used in the plant has been developed and funded by WRAP in collaboration with M&S, Dairy Crest and Nampak

l The PET bottles will be recycled using patented technology developed by South Carolina-based United Resource Recovery Corporation to sort, granulate and super clean the recycled plastic bottles to produce a high quality raw material that has been tested extensively and is widely used in food applications in both the US and Europe.

l Marks & Spencer has pioneered an office recycling scheme with Closed Loop Recycling as part of its Food to Go range relaunch, which will mean that some waste packaging from the new range will be supplied to the Dagenham plant via Closed Loop, and the product produced by the plant will then be used in Marks & Spencer packaging. Solo Cup (Europe) is also a sponsor of the scheme.

l The Closed Loop Recycling plant will produce two main types of food-grade recycled plastic: i) HDPE  for making new milk bottles ii) PET for making plastic food and drink containers such as bottles, trays and bowls for ready meals/salads etc.

l WRAP works in partnership to encourage and enable businesses and consumers to be more efficient in their use of materials and recycle more things more often. This helps to minimise landfill, reduce carbon emissions and improve our environment.

l Established in 2000, WRAP is backed by government funding from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. More information on all of WRAP's programmes can be found at www.wrap.org.uk

l Foresight Group is a leading alternative asset manager.  The company has invested £4.7 million equity in Closed Loop Recycling, alongside other investors and strategic partners, as part of the company's initial funding round.

l Coca-Cola Enterprises' European operations are in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands and Monaco.

l Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd is a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc, the world's largest marketer, producer and distributor of the products of The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC).  Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd manufactures and distributes TCCC products, as well as products for other brand-owners, throughout England, Scotland and Wales, and employs around 4,600 people.

l Coca-Cola Enterprises is committed to minimising the environmental impact of its products and operations. It is particularly focused on sustainable packaging, water stewardship, and energy and climate protection, and has made good progress in these areas, although there is still more to be done. For example in Great Britain, energy use across manufacturing operations has been reduced by 16% since 2001; packaging has also been reduced - the iconic glass Coke bottle is now 20% lighter; the amount of water used per litre of product has been cut by 21% since 2001; and 90% of waste at sites is now recovered or recycled.  For more information about Coca-Cola Enterprises, please visit www.cokecce.co.uk

l Solo Cup Europe is contracted to Closed Loop for the supply of RPET for its food packaging range.  It is a demonstration of Solo Cup Europe's dedication to the continual development of its environmental performance that it is the first food disposables manufacturer to commit to Closed Loop. 
· Nampak Plastics Europe (www.eu.plastics.nampak.com) is one of Europe's largest manufacturer's of rigid plastic containers to the Food and Drink industry with a £100 million turnover and supplied over 2 billion containers a year. The company currently operates from seven sites across the UK including five in-plant ('through the wall') operations which are situated on customer sites.

l Gateway to London (GtL) is the inward investment & business retention agency for London Thames Gateway. As a public/private sector partnership, GtL is funded by the London Development Agency, Department for the Communities & Local Government, the European Regional Development Fund and other private sector partners.