Page 14 from: Recycling International May issue | 2021
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re-gen WaSte announceS Multi Million
inveStMent in recycled productS
following plans for a £22 million (eur 26 million) ‘circular economy
resource park’ in northern ireland announced earlier this year, re-gen
Waste has committed a further £20 million in the local manufacture of
two innovative new recycled products.
Derived from local household waste, the advanced, absorbent paper is
currently undergoing R&D testing in association with Queen’s University,
Belfast. Both manufactured goods should be ready to bring to market in
2023. The new investment is expected to create 250 jobs in the Newry
area, deliver £20 millions of value to the Northern Ireland economy annu-
ally and provide a strong alternative to incineration and shipping recycla-
ble materials overseas.
MD Joseph Doherty says that small and medium sized enterprises in
Northern Ireland have been innovating and developing processes and
plant to move towards a circular economy in the last ten years. ‘This can’t
happen overnight but Northern Ireland is hitting its targets to become a
zero-waste society. In 2019-20, the region achieved a household waste
recycling and composting rate of 51.9%. This is a dramatic step forward in
our recycling rate, which continues to grow,’ Doherty states. ‘The volume
of household waste landfilled has decreased by 352 837 tonnes, down
from 561 173 tonnes in 2009-10 to 208 336 tonnes in 2019-20 and is con-
tinuing to fall rapidly year-on-year. According to DAERA’s Compositional
Study 2017, 55% of the residual waste is recyclable material, which we will
also extract for use in manufacturing these new products.’
Doherty adds: ‘New policy and legislative measures such as extended pro-
ducer responsibility, plastic tax and a deposit return scheme will dramati-
cally change the nature and volume of waste, post 2023. We are position-
ing our business to meet these new policies and are proud that the 23.1%
increase in our recycling rate has been achieved through private invest-
ment by SMEs in the waste sector to extract and recover recyclable and
compostable materials.’
freSh funding targetS pp
recycling in aMerica
the uS polypropylene recycling coalition, a cross-
industry partnership, is providing uS$ 1 million (eur
830 000) in grants to three materials recovery facili-
ties to boost the recovery of polypropylene across the
country.
The recipients (with location) are: American Recycling
(Candler, North Carolina); DEM-CON (Shakopee,
Minnesota); and Independent Texas Recyclers (Houston,
Texas).
The latest injection means the organisation has awarded
US$ 3 million (EUR 2.4 million) to seven recycling facilities
since its launch in 2020. The aim is to improve access to
kerbside polypropylene (PP) recycling for an additional
3% of US households, accounting for about 7.2 million
people nationally. It is estimated this could increase PP
recovery by an estimated 4 300 tonnes per year.
Members of the coalition steering committee are Keurig
Dr Pepper, Braskem, NextGen Consortium and the
Walmart Foundation, as well as other members of the PP
value chain including the non-profit organisation The
Recycling Partnership.
‘The coalition is leading the effort to rapidly drive mean-
ingful, measurable change that will improve and increase
the capture of polypropylene in US kerbside recycling,’
says Sarah Dearman, vice-president of Circular Ventures
at the Recycling Partnership. ‘We continue to encourage
all companies that use PP to join us in being part of the
solution to ensure greater and better capture of this recy-
clable material.’
She believes that widespread interest and commitment
from MRFs across the US to recyclable PP ‘clearly dem-
onstrates the market strength’ for the material nation-
wide.
Dearman says the coalition received a ‘strong response’
to both the first and second rounds of requests for pro-
posals and continues to accept grant applications to
boost polypropylene recycling. The next deadline for
applying for grants is 30 June. MRFs interested in sorting
and recycling PP are being encouraged to apply.
fead aSSertS vital iMportance of battery recycling
expert panellists taking part in a webinar organised by
waste management association fead agreed that hav-
ing a strong battery value chain is of strategic value and
importance for europe.
The debate was staged in the wake of the European
Commission’s proposal to modernise end-of-life battery
regulations and involved FEAD president Peter Kurth, Jose
Rizo Martin of the European Commission’s Directorate-
General for the Environment, Alessandro Danesi (commer-
cial director at battery recycler S.E.VAL Group) and
Hartmut Stahl (researcher at the Oeko Institut).
Their conclusions included:
• More ambitious collection targets; to achieve the cor-
rect handling and disposal of batteries, higher collection
targets of up to 80% for all types of batteries are needed,
except for automotive batteries when collection targets of
100% should apply.
• Mandatory recycled content; the circular economy
requires a strong demand for recyclates, and in this regard
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