Monday 1 February 2021

Veolia increases plastic recycling by 8,000 tonnes per year

Veolia has expanded its plastic recycling operations by 8,000 tonnes per year. This will allow the resource management company to process 100 different grades of plastic including consumer, commercial and industrial.

The company has three sites in London, Essex and Middlesex that are dedicated to enabling the increase. It aims to push the UK to a more circular plastic economy, with the process involving the collection of raw materials from homes and businesses and recycling them into plastic pellets that can be used to build new items.

Veolia claims various pre-consumer items can now be recycled. These include the plastics used to make carrier bags, bottles, plugs, CDs and DVDs and mobile phones.

Internationally, the company is part of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, which has committed to invest $1.5 billion (£1.09 bn) over the next five years to help end plastic waste in the environment.

Tim Duret, Director of Sustainable Technology at Veolia UK & Ireland said: "The green recovery and climate change must be priorities, and a key part of this is to tackle the problem of plastics getting into the environment.

“As recycling plastic uses 75% less energy than using virgin material the process lowers carbon, and if all plastic were recycled this could mean annual savings of 30 to 150 million tonnes of carbon dioxide."