UK recycler Jayplas completed commissioning its , in North Thoresby, Lincolnshire. Argus spoke to Jason Davies, PET division director, and Vanessa Morgan, commercial manager, about the progress of the project, the demand drivers for the new plant and to discuss the challenges and opportunities in the UK and wider European recycling market.
Tell us about the new HDPE/PP recycling plant in North Thoresby.
The plant has everything from sorting all the way through to pelletising, with a capacity of around 25,000 t/yr. We are using natural HDPE post-consumer plastic bottle bales, containing HDPE milk bottles and other food grade HDPE packaging products, which are from UK kerbside collections. Firstly, sorting to remove any contamination, to achieve a quality of infeed material that will reach food grade specification. The material is then size reduced, hot washed and dried, then sent through colour sorters and polymer sorters. The rHDPE flake is then pelletised, which includes an innovative technology from Erema, removing volatiles. The last step is pellet sorting, which will remove any pellets that do not conform to our specifications. We have invested heavily in the technology and process, and we believe it is going to help us deliver a consistent high-quality product.
How has demand been since the start-up, and which downstream sectors have shown the most interest?
There is a lot of interest across the board. We have had good conversations with manufacturers and brands, from the dairy industries through to packaging for healthcare products, and food packaging. There is a lot of interest in rHDPE, and there is also an increasing interest and demand for rPP, multiple food packaging companies are screaming out for food grade recycled PP pellets. Currently there isn't any volume from the mechanical recycling process of post-consumer source PP pellet that is suitable for food packaging. The majority of them would need European Food Standards Agency (EFSA) approval, when we get EFSA over the line, I have no doubt that this will be one of many lines we will need to install to produce a PCR PP food standard pellet.
We are focusing on supporting the increased use of PCR pellet in packaging, producing a high-quality consistent range of recyclate, and supplying to manufacturers across the board. We have bottle manufacturers in the UK that have been looking for a UK supply source of rHDPE to use back into packaging — having a UK supplier also reduces their carbon footprint. It is quite encouraging, and we look forward to seeing the increase across all packaging where possible to include PCR pellets and see a percentage increase in the use as we move forward with new innovation in packaging design.
Given that rHDPE and rPP grade suitable for high-end consumer packaging are currently more expensive than virgin polymer equivalents, and there are no mandates to use recycled content, what do you see driving that demand?
There is the perception that it is consumer-driven demand, but that is a little bit questionable. If you offered the consumer 100pc recycled packaging but at a higher price, I am not sure they would all be happy about it or if given a choice of a packing with less recycled content, that was cheaper, in the current financial situations people find themselves in, they would go for the cheaper product.
What we have heard from a few of the bigger firms is that net zero is a driver from the commercial side — recycled content is significant help to them on the carbon reduction. Most of the companies are doing quite well on Scope 1 and Scope 2 targets, but when it comes to Scope 3, they are reliant on their suppliers to reduce their carbon footprint. Many customers, especially larger ones, request us to commit to certain certifications, which we can only get if our carbon footprint is also reducing.
You have got to look at all the benefits, not just the fact that you are using a plastic repeatedly, and our product should help companies to use more recycled content. In the UK dairy industry, most bottles are currently 25-30pc rHDPE content, and achieving more has been technically challenging. But some of the big organisations want to achieve 40-50pc, and we believe with the technology we have and the trials we have run, we can help them achieve that.
How price-sensitive are the companies that you are looking to work with, even where they are willing to pay a premium compared with virgin polymer?
I would love to say that companies are not as sensitive to price where they feel the product is excellent quality, but in reality, it is still commercially driven. They are willing to pay a premium for the recycled content, but that premium needs to be as small as it possibly can be. Taking the dairy industry as an example — margins are small, farmers are squeezed, the packaging has to be squeezed, everything is squeezed. So, there is reluctance to pay a huge premium over virgin polymer.
You said you are applying for EFSA approval for food-contact applications, among other certifications — how easy is that process and what could be done to improve it?
Currently we have US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for our rHDPE, and we are submitting for testing to achieve EFSA approval. On rPP we do not have either, but we are going through the process to get both. The UK and European markets still require an EFSA certification for food contact applications. But there are other market segments that would accept an FDA certification, such as household goods and most cosmetics and personal care products.
The process is incredibly challenging. The whole supply chain needs to be considered in the process, you need to consider, from how your input material is collected and the contamination potentials throughout that process. I think the minimum we are looking at is six months from when we started the process, and that is obviously not a guarantee.
The new plant comes on line at a challenging time for the wider European recycling industry. What can be done to improve the outlook for the industry?
The biggest risk we see is material from further afield given the European market superseding the use of UK recyclate. There are always questions about the UK quality because plastic is collected comingled with materials. And I think a lot of people have been told that the quality is not good enough and gone elsewhere to look for supposedly better quality material.
Building the infrastructure needed in the UK to help UK recyclers to compete will require legislation, for example stopping imports from counting towards the 30pc recycled content threshold for the Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) or finding another way to prioritise UK supply. Allowing post-industrial recyclates (PIR) to count towards the PPT threshold is obviously also a hindrance to the post-consumer recycling (PCR) industry. There are certain products, particularly food contact, where you cannot get food-approved PCR, which pushes people towards PIR, but maybe if you rule that out it would drive quicker research and development.
There have been some quite high-level articles coming out recently saying the UK recycling industry will die without support, and that support starts at legislation of how we organise the simpler way to collect these materials, and incentivising people to invest. A sentiment that was shared by participants at the latest Recoup conference.
Since the Q&A was conducted the UK government announced a reclassification for pre-consumer/post-industrial waste in the annual Budget speech. Pre-consumer waste will no longer be classified as recycled plastic for the purpose of
Plastic Packaging Tax. It is important to note that there is a caveat of: "We therefore intend to align the removal of this provision with the timeframe for the adoption of a mass balance approach for chemically recycled plastic, which will be set out in the future.
