Viridor Sustainability Head calls for closer collaboration between supermarkets and recycling companies

15 Jan 2020 --- Closer collaboration between supermarkets and recycling companies is crucial to raising recycling rates, according to Dan Cooke, Head of Sustainability for Viridor, the largest UK-owned recycling, renewable energy and waste management company. The comments come in light of a recent Green Alliance report, which warned that plastics are only the tip of the single-use iceberg and pointed the finger at throwaway culture as the root cause of packaging’s environmental scourge. Cooke has voiced his support for the report’s conclusions, including the prediction that switching from plastics to alternative materials could have a greater impact on the environment.

The report suggests that some of those plastic alternatives could be more harmful to the environment in the long run, when taking factors such as carbon emissions into account.

“The often kneejerk reactions of some buyers and brands can cause frustration for recycling companies as they move away from inherently recyclable packaging types into materials like coated cardboard and composites that are less recyclable and that can have a worse environmental impact,” Cooke explains.

“We work closely with supermarkets and brand owners on recyclability and to align recycling services with their requirements.”

“There's still an obvious need for improved collaboration and better policy to enable investment in technology and infrastructure that will sustainably raise recycling rates for post-consumer materials.”

Dan Cooke, Head of Sustainability for Viridor, the largest UK-owned recycling, renewable energy and waste management company.One of the examples highlighted by the Green Alliance report was plastic bags. Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury's have all recently switched from single-use plastic bags to single-use paper bags for loose products, such as those from the bakery section.

“This is a worrying trend as paper bags, which are often just as unnecessary as their plastic counterparts, can have much higher carbon impacts, though this can depend on material sources and product specification,” the Green Alliance report reads.

“In the absence of government direction, a disjointed and potentially counterproductive approach to solving plastic pollution is emerging,” it warns.

The new report, entitled Plastic promises: What the grocery sector is really doing about packaging, quotes industry insiders, showing that bigger changes are on the way that could have negative consequences, including higher carbon emissions and lower packaging recyclability.

It found that consumers were confused about biodegradable plastic, with 80 percent of consumers thinking it was an environmentally-friendly product. Experts called for a clearer approach in how it should be used and marked to avoid problems.

There were also calls for more government intervention in future developments and setting standards, so that action is coherent across the industry.

“The public is right to be outraged about plastic pollution. But what we don't want is, a few years down the line, for them to be outraged about new environmental problems caused by the alternatives,” comments Libby Peake, Senior Policy Adviser on resources for Green Alliance.

“We need to address the root of the problem, our throwaway society. Companies need much more help from the government to tackle plastic pollution without making climate change and other environmental impacts worse in the process.”

In December, global fresh food protective packaging supplier Klöckner Pentaplast (kp) agreed a “transformative” five-year collaboration with Viridor, through which Viridor will supply 8,000 metric tons of post-consumer recycled PET (rPET) to kp annually. The agreement will be fulfilled by Viridor’s new £65 million (US$85 million) Avonmouth Resource Recovery Centre, which will make kp its largest rPET flake customer and subsequently, its largest buyer of rPET flake in the UK.

UK multinational chemicals company INEOS will also be supplied with recovered polymers from Viridor’s Avonmouth Resource Recovery Centre. Viridor sorts, cleans and recycles the post-consumer plastics while INEOS applies its material science expertise to boost and tailor the properties of new hybrid polymers. The facility is powered by Viridor’s £252 million (US$325 million) energy recovery plant that puts non-recyclable waste to work to produce electricity and heat.

Edited by Joshua Poole