Viridor food-grade PET gets the green light from European Food Safety Authority

09 Sep 2021 --- Viridor’s new Avonmouth Polymers Reprocessing Facility (PRF), near Bristol in the UK, has received a positive safety assessment from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for its food-grade PET. Once fully operational, Avonmouth will become the UK’s largest multi-polymer facility. 

Commissioning of the new plant – which puts polymers recycling and reprocessing under one roof – has begun. It will produce 18,000 metric tons of food-grade PET annually.

In total, Avonmouth will put 60,000 metric tons of recycled plastic from bottles, pots, tubs and trays (PET, HDPE and PP) back into the economy each year as a viable and quality alternative to virgin plastic.

The new plant represents a “crucial infrastructure investment” for the UK ahead of important policy changes, according to Viridor director of business development polymers, Luke Burgess.

“These include next year’s plastics packaging tax and further legislation such as extended producer responsibility and deposit return schemes, which form a central element of the UK Government’s Resources & Waste Strategy,” he notes.

The new plant will produce 18,000 metric tons of food-grade PET annually.Last month, the UK government explored new pathways to stop the supply of a range of single-use plastics, including a potential ban on plastic plates, cutlery and polystyrene cups.

Packing renewable energy
The Avonmouth PRF receives its heat and electricity from the processing of non-recyclable waste at a co-located energy recovery plant, which diverts 320,000 metric tons of non-recyclable waste from landfill every year generating valuable heat and power.

“As a major player in the drinks bottle manufacturing industry in the UK and Europe, we see our supply partnership with Viridor as being key to our continued success and growth,” says Davy Brunel, director at bottle water distributor Roxane, working in collaboration with Viridor.

The EFSA opinion is based on a thorough assessment of plant processes with an emphasis on the suitability of the finished polymer product for various packaging applications.

“The recognition of this investment and our quality food-grade PET is, of course, vital to ensure the UK can achieve closed loop recycling – which means food and drinks packaging can be recycled, reprocessed and returned to their original purpose, creating new food and drink packaging,” remarks Burgess.

“It’s also an extremely important development for our clients who have their own environmental commitment and sustainability targets.”

By Benjamin Ferrer