Recoup Plastics Resource Recycling Conference 2023
Recoup members and industry representatives gathered at the Kingsgate Conference Centre in Peterborough, England, on September 28 for the latest annual Plastics Resource and Recycling Conference. It was essentially UK focused but addressed issues that are of interest in Europe more widely and across the world. Sponsors included Berry bpi recycling, Tomra, Plastics Europe and the British Plastics Federation.
Sessions were chaired and moderated by Tom Heap, a TV personality in the UK, well known from appearances on current affairs programmes and Countryfile, a wildlife and rural affairs show. He was adept at raising points of clarification on subjects on which were not fully understood and at encouraging participants to expand on and develop topics of interest or possible contention.
Microplastics in the environment
The format was that speakers gave a short presentation, which was followed by questions from the conference hall and following online. It made for a lively and informative series of debates. An early opportunity for clarification arose on the subject of microplastics in the environment, which have been found in organisms as small as diatoms and appear to accumulate up the food chain. While acknowledging that this was evidentially the case, Heap asked if there was any evidence of harm. The response was a definite yes from Rowan Byrne, Marine Biologist & Technical Expert – Marine Plastics Project Lead, Mott MacDonald Group, a management, engineering and development consultancy headquartered in Croydon in Greater London. “The harm is reduced ability for species to survive,” he said. This impacts on the livelihoods in the fishing industry. “Also, reduced age groups of these organisms, reduced ability to just do its normal daily activity, behavioural changes and physiological changes. The impacts are stark, because they alter the natural behaviour of all the organisms, they accumulate in the ecosystem and impact biodiversity on the coast.”
‘Plastic phobia’ and the need for education
The case for keeping plastic waste out of the environment is a strong one but the conference also cautioned about the dangers of ‘plastic phobia’. Plastic polymers are and remain the most efficient, safest and – if handled correctly – the most eco-friendly materials for medical devices, packaging and a range of other uses. ‘Plastic phobia’ can lead to single use plastic being replaced by single-use paper, which is deemed to be more environmentally friendly. This is not the case, according to Shane Monkman, Managing Director, One:Ex Consulting Ltd. He was formerly responsible for packaging and procurement with supermarket chain Asda. “Every material has a role to play but every material comes with its own tradeoffs,” he said and expressed concerns about the impact of paper, including deforestation and monoculture forestry, higher carbon emissions and biodegradability.
Better handling and infrastructure
The ‘plastic bad/paper good’ drumbeat can be confusing for consumers. The challenge the conference was addressing was how to handle plastics better, to reduce waste, improve reuse, recovery and recycling and to ensure that the infrastructure and capacity are in place, make education and accurate information a priority and, crucially, make recycling easier for the public. Of late, the opposite seems to have been the case. The UK has seen recycling facilities closed, rather than reopened. Collection rates have fallen in some parts of the country, according to a representative from Cambridgeshire County Council, in part because of disruption from Covid measures and the consequences and hangovers. Soft plastic collection and recycling, in particular, leaves a lot to be desired and chemical recycling is both in its infancy and often misunderstood.
Searching for the right solutions
There is no simple, one-size-fits-all solution, however. Recycling processes that require a lot of water – ie, chemical processes – would not be appropriate in California, which has never had a glut of water and is now suffering a years-long drought. Collection services in some parts of the UK and the wider world are sparse or non-existent. The point was made that there must be more buy-in from brands but it was also pointed out that such participation may well require incentives, either financial or legislative. In this context, Paul Davidson, Challenge Director for the Smart Sustainable Challenge Fund, which is managed by UK Research and Investment (UKRI), outlined a competition being offered within the fund’s budget of up to £60 million (EUR 69 million), for “ambitious” early stage projects in investigating ways to reduce, reuse or recycle plastics. While there is, ultimately, no substitute for the infrastructure and physical capacity to recycle plastics, especially including PET food packaging, Dan Dicker, CEO & Founder, Circular & Co, made a strong argument for the importance of design. His company works with global brands on developing closed loop systems, designing for reuse and recycling from initial concept to finished item, striving to avoid finished products getting into the waste stream in the first place.
Current and future developments
James Wigzell, Technical Sales Support Representative, Avery Dennison (AD), described the company’s CleanFlake adhesive technology, which is designed to support the recycling of PET and HDPE packaging. During PET recycling, the adhesive deactivates to allow both label and adhesive to separate cleanly. In the case of coloured HDPE recycling, the label stays attached but does not compromise the resulting plastic pellets. AD took the decision to offer only CleanFlake labels from last year. James said it was the sort of bold decision he would encourage other companies to act similarly, in order to improve the whole recycling landscape.
Jan Hommen joined Tomra in 2021, to focus on Circular Plastic Applications. Tomra is well known for reverse vending machines for collection of used beverage containers and is a leading manufacturer of PET sorting and recycling equipment. It is a strong advocate of circular manufacturing solutions. He advised that the plastics industry is planning to manufacture at least 10 million tonnes of plastics entirely from recycled material by 2030. While Tomra is encouraging suppliers to sort mixed waste and take out plastic items, in order to avoid emissions trading scheme (ETS) fees, he also described how the company is addressing the challenge of poor separation across waste collection by planning to recover one to two million tonnes of plastic from mixed waste, and to save 2.5 to 5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions through recycling processes.
Bryony Rothwell, Recap Partnership Manager, Cambridgeshire County Council, discussed the approach of local government in the UK to recycling and waste management, in the light of a significant drop in recycling rates. She said that the drop has arisen from changes in packaging and talked about the need to capture and process non-recyclable materials and emphasised the importance of encouraging behaviour change in the public, to divert waste from waterways.
Education and simplicity, systems and buy-in
The public is undoubtedly much more conscious of environmental issues. People are very much in favour of change but it is a bit more difficult to get them to change themselves. Two of the leading takeaways from the conference were the need for education, especially to overcome plastic phobia, and an urgent need to make reuse, recovery and recycling easy. The simpler the process, the more that the public and the whole value chain will be engaged and participate. Successful implementation of effective recycling – ideally, building efficient circular manufacturing – starts at the design stage and involves everyone, from material suppliers to consumers. Brands and manufacturers should not wait for legislation; they should be doing it for commercial and ESG reasons.
