A soft plastics recycling plant that is co-owned by Morrisons and Yes Recycling has been opened in Fife, Scotland.
Nestlé UK & Ireland and Zero Waste Scotland have also been involved in the development of the plant.
The new plant uses patented technology to turn hard-to-recycle flexible food packaging into plastic flakes, pellets and a product called Ecosheet that is used in construction and agriculture.
Hard-to-recycle soft plastic including chocolate wrappers, crisp packets and food film will be sent to the site from Morrisons’ distribution sites and stores. The plant will also receive material from Cireco Scotland, who operate Fife Council’s household collection service.
Yes Recycling co-owner Omer Kutluoglu said: “The UK is in desperate need of more plastic recycling capacity and, in particular, for the so-called ‘hard-to-recycle’ plastic waste such as flexible food packaging.
“Our new ‘next-generation’ recycling plant, which we’ve developed over the last seven years, is designed to tackle exactly these materials. It is a blueprint for the future and will help to kick-start the UK’s plastics recycling industry. It will mean we can keep plastic in our own country’s ‘circular economy’ and out of our seas and oceans.”
Morrisons procurement director Jamie Winter added: “We’ve done a significant amount of work to reduce our plastic use and now we want to help build a UK infrastructure to recycle the plastic that we may still need to use. By recycling these problematic plastics here in the UK we can give them a new life.”
