20% Production Increase from New Processing Kit : Veolia Makes Additional £1m Investment in Dagenham Plastic Recycling Plant

Environmental services firm, Veolia UK, has invested a further £1 million in it’s Dagenham Plastic Recycling facility as demand continues to increase.

The new investment comes just over a year after the launch of the UK’s Plastics Pact, of which Veolia is a founding member, and provides a new granulator, a new processing kit and upgraded the washing process allowing a 20% increase in food grade production responding to the increasing need and interest of manufactures that are part of the pact.

Richard Kirkman, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer commented:

“The UK Plastics Pact has given a boost to the industry that was needed to make plastic recycling a reality. Since the launch we have seen demand increase and so we had to ensure our site was working efficiently to meet demand.

“This is an opportunity for an industry that is getting bad press to become sustainable and this investment shows our commitment to make this a reality. It will help to increase the amount the UK recycles and encourage recyclable materials and designs for products, and discourage the use of harder to recycle options such as black plastic and polystyrene yogurt pots.

“We still have a long way to go to 2025 but it’s extremely positive. Recycling is a chain of events from manufacturer, consumer to recycler and we need each part of the chain to make changes to have successful scalable results.”

Veolia added that it has also done a number of other projects in support of the Pact:

Working in partnership with Unilever they have introduced a new type of black pigment for its personal care bottles that can be detected by Veolia’s infra-red scanners and therefore recycled

Unveiled a reverse vending machine in Kings Cross to allow members of the public to recycle bottles and receive a voucher worth 10% off the bill at Leon

Internationally Veolia is also part of the cross value chain Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), currently made up of nearly thirty member companies, and this has committed over $1 billion with the goal of investing $1.5 billion over the next five years to help end plastic waste in the environment.

The Alliance will develop and bring to scale solutions that will minimize and manage plastic waste and promote solutions for used plastics by helping to enable a circular economy. The Alliance membership represents global companies and located throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Read More

Veolia and LEON pilot deposit return scheme to solve on the go recycling

Veolia has teamed up with health conscious fast food chain LEON to deploy a reverse vending machine designed to accept plastic bottles and aluminium at King’s Cross in central London.

IN DEPTH: Gas Cylinder Recycling Operation from Veolia

It doesn’t take a genius to realise that pressurised gas cylinders and the shredding and baling equipment found in recycling facilities are not a good mix. To tackle the problem, Veolia has launched a new recovery and recycling service.