News

Large-scale commercial recycling of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) for plastic bottles could become a reality in the UK after a successful trial by Marks & Spencer.

The retailer received no adverse consumer reaction to packaging quality following its trial involving plastic milk bottles, which started in December 2006 and was the culmination of a three-year project funded by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP).

WRAP is now negotiating contracts to provide financial support for potential recyclers to commercially establish the process in the UK.

WRAP chief executive Jennie Price (pictured) said: “This is a major breakthrough for UK recycling. Incorporating recycled plastic into everyday products, such as milk bottles, is vital if we are to gain the maximum environmental benefits from recycling.”

In the M&S trial, post-consumer scrap bottles were sorted both by infra-red detectors and by hand to separate natural HDPE bottles.

Sorted bottles were flaked and washed in a 2% caustic solution at 93°C to remove surface dirt, paper labels and adhesive.

The flakes were dried and colour sorted, then put through a ‘super-clean’ recycling process.

The new food-grade polymer was then added to virgin HDPE at 30% and made into milk bottles.

The trial comprised 60,000 four-litre plastic milk bottles. The project also involved Nampak Plastics, Dairy Crest, the Fraunhofer Institute, recycling systems suppliers Sorema and Erema, and Nextek.