EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 10/22 www.petpla.net 23 in the Ashfield district of Nottinghamshire. We met at the Kirkby in Ashfield facility; the third factory is around three kilometres away, in Sutton in Ashfield. The Sutton site has been the centre of PET production but all plastics bottle, carton and closure manufacture is in the process of being centralised in Kirkby. Total company revenues now are in the region of £50 million a year (€60 million). On the plastics side of the business, Robinson’s supplies customers in chemical, domestic cleaning, personal care, food – predominantly foodservice, as opposed to retail but, during the tour of the plant, we saw some packaging for Tesco’s, a very well-known UK high street retailer. Its customer roll also includes Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser and SC Johnson. “We make bottles for Radox shower and bath gels, bleach bottles, squeezy bottles for sauces, rigid jars and pots for chilled soups. Wherever you shop, you will potentially be buying products sold in Robinson packaging,” Helene explains. PET, PP and HDPE Around 70% of its UK plastic production is for food and beverage but that market represents less than half of the Poland factories’ output, which is oriented to homecare and personal care. The Denmark plant is primarily focused on home care; its food and drink activity is mainly supplying larger-capacity containers for foodservice and catering. Currently, its plastics packaging output is approximately 35% each in PET and PP, and 30% in HDPE. “I think there is a market shift towards PET, because it’s the easiest to drive recycled content,” Dr Roberts said. However, demand for rPET is outstripping supply, at the moment, and the UK is a long way from selfsufficiency. Indorama Ventures finally closed its recycling plant in County Durham, in the North-East of England, in 2017; the largest recycling plant in the country is now Monoworld Recycling, located at Rushden, Northamptonshire, at the southern end of the East Midlands. Robinson does what it can within those operational challenges. Improving recyclability “We stopped using carbon black because of the impact on recyclability and now use alternative additives. We are also moving away from polystyrene – we only had a small amount but our production now is essentially PT, PP and HDPE,” Dr Roberts said. “There’s no reason why any of these materials cannot be recycled. My drive is to get to DNC boosters Turnkey all-in-one system • Compact powerhouse with a footprint of only 2.35 m² ,QLWLDO SUHVVXUH XS WR EDU ² ÀQDO SUHVVXUH XS WR EDU • Plug and play: ready for immediate operation 3UHPLXP HˣFLHQF\ ,( PRWRU GHOLYHUV LPSUHVVLYH SHUIRUPDQFH DQG HQHUJ\ VDYLQJV • Sigma Control 2 controller: RSWLPXP HˣFLHQF\ DQG QHWZRUN FDSDELOLW\ ,QGXVWULH www.kaeser.com 19. – 26. October 2022 Fair Düsseldorf Hall 11 | Stand H 65 A tray of robot-packed 1 l bath/shower bottles with 50% rPET content
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