Amcor has commissioned Greenback Recycling Technologies’ Enval advanced recycling module at the packaging company’s site in Heanor, Derbyshire, UK.
The installation marks the first time Greenback’s recycling technology has been used by a large packaging company in Europe.
The project is being carried out in cooperation with the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), with the goal of testing methods for turning post-consumer flexible plastics into materials that can be used for food-grade plastics production.
The recycling process is monitored by the eco2Veritas traceability system, which uses AI and internet-enabled devices to collect data throughout the process from receiving waste through to generating pyrolytic oil.
This oil is documented with a digital certificate, providing traceability data for mass-balance calculation as it is transformed into recycled plastics.
Heanor was selected for this deployment due to its existing capabilities in handling and recycling both post-consumer and industrial flexible plastic waste.
The facility currently uses mechanical recycling to convert waste plastic into polymers for use in various flexible packaging products made by Amcor.
With the addition of the Enval module, the facility will be able to process a broader range of post-consumer flexible plastics.
UK Nature and Circular Economy Minister Mary Creagh attended the commissioning event.
Creagh said: “This is an exciting example of how shared action between government and the private sector can tackle the world’s plastic waste mountain through innovation, infrastructure investment and collaboration. This commissioning reflects the government’s broader ambition to build a resilient, circular economy by reusing the plastics that already exist.”
Greenback CEO and founder Philippe von Stauffenberg commented: “This commissioning demonstrated how collaboration and innovation can accelerate scalable circular solutions. We are proud to work with Amcor and government stakeholders to scale technologies that keep plastics in the economy and out of the environment.”
Last month, Amcor joined a three-year Danish initiative focused on developing a fully circular recycling system for household food packaging made from plastics.
Led by the Danish Technological Institute and supported under the Circular Recycling Innovation for Sustainable Packaging (CRISP) programme, this effort targets rigid food packaging manufactured from polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
