Progress on Mixed Plastics Waste Recycling

CeDo has reported significant progress in its research and development of recycling of mixed plastics film waste. David Brookes, Process Manager spoke at the Recoup -organised domestic mixed plastics recycling meeting in Oxford in May and outlined some of the technical advances to date.

CeDo’s film extrusion plant in Telford UK and its CeDo’s recycling plant in Geleen Holland are combining forces to tackle the chemical, mechanical and process issues in trying to recycle this most problematic area of the plastics waste stream.

Brookes reported to the Recoup meeting that CeDo’s technology has assisted in surmounting the chief difficulties in the processability and recyclability of the waste. Brookes reports that CeDo is set to continue with
and expand its closed loop plastics recycling initiatives in areas such as agricultural, industrial and commercial plastics film waste. CeDo’s plant in Geleen Holland is currently recycling some 40,000 annual tonnes of
Europe’s post-use agricultural film waste back into into its EcoMin 2nd life plastic binliners.

“This kind of post-use industrial plastics recycling demands a great deal of quality control; auditing, training and education of the supply side as well as a lot of experience in the process technology that delivers the 2nd life plastic back to the marketplace,” said Brookes. “But recycling a variety of mixed plastics film waste from the public waste stream poses much greater technical challenges all round, together with questions of cost. Local authorities and the waste management industries will need to work closely together in order to keep the momentum going in this area of recycling.”

Part of CeDo’s ongoing research in this area has been taken up with in a project announced in Autumn 2008 by WRAP, (Waste & Resources Action Programme). Partners in the mixed plastics project consortium include Sainsbury’s, Valpak, Bowman Process Technology, Closed Loop Recycling, Linpac and CeDo Ltd.