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Following construction commencing on the world’s first HydroPRS™ advanced plastic recycling site in Teesside, UK, ReNew ELP have today confirmed that a contract is now in place with Geminor UK Ltd to act as principal feedstock supplier to the North East based project.

The agreement with Geminor will see at least 15,000 tonnes of PE and PP rich plastic feedstock diverted away from incineration and into recycling per year, making up the majority of the feedstock supply for the first 20,000 tonnes per annum phase of the 80,000 annual tonnes per annum ReNew ELP project.

Traditionally supplying the EfW (Energy from Waste) industry, which incinerates waste plastic, Geminor’s move to supplying the recycling industry with post-consumer plastic packaging waste will bring environmental benefits, with advanced recycling estimated to save approximately 1.5 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of waste recycled when compared to incineration, whilst diverting waste plastic away from environmental pollution.

All feedstock will be sourced from within the UK, reducing need to export plastic waste to the EU and beyond.

James Maiden, Country Manager at Geminor UK Ltd, said:

“Geminor UK is pleased to have agreed the contract to supply the feedstock to the Wilton ReNew ELP facility. Now that the project has achieved financial close and construction has commenced, we look forward to working with the ReNew ELP team to establish the supply of waste plastics to the plant.

“Geminor is very supportive of ground-breaking projects such as ReNew ELP, which enable us to develop new streams of secondary feedstock supply to our offtake partners and to move materials we manage for our customers up the waste hierarchy.

“Developing the supply chain for the plant will support Geminor’s drive to develop lower carbon-based feedstock streams in other areas of the market, providing a progressive and reliable route for the recycling of waste plastics.”

The upcoming reformation of UK Packaging Waste Regulations, implementing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for packaging from 2023 will see plastic producers responsible for the full net cost of recovering the plastic waste that they place onto the market. Leading up to the introduction of EPR, ReNew ELP have formed an agreement with Ecosurety Limited, one of the UK’s leading producer responsibility compliance schemes, for technical support and expertise in securing Environment Agency reprocessor accreditation, as well as auditing and management of data in the National Packaging Waste Database. Ecosurety will also assist with the issuing of recycling evidence known as Packaging Recovery Notes (PRNs) by ReNew ELP.

At the core of Ecosurety is the drive to make a tangible impact on UK recycling via consumer education programmes, supporting recycling innovation and infrastructure development. By working with Ecosurety, ReNew ELP also hope to encourage the recycling of flexible plastic materials from Front of Store (FoS) collections via the Flexible Plastic Fund, which encourages collection of post-consumer flexible plastic packaging at stores and is funded by a number of international brands.

Sandeep Attwal, Procurement Manager at Ecosurety Limited said:

“Ecosurety are delighted to be working with ReNew ELP and supporting on this exciting sustainability project, which will ensure that more plastic packaging waste is recycled in the UK rather than incinerated or exported.”

Plastic waste is an urgent environmental challenge. Of all plastic ever made, only 9% has ever been recycled, with the vast majority (79%) ending up in landfill or the environmenti – the UK alone produces 2.4m tonnes of plastic packaging per yearii. 8 million tonnes of plastic enters the world’s annuallyiii, predicted to increase tenfold by 2025 if solutions aren’t foundiv.

ReNew ELP is the first plant to use HydroPRS™, an advanced recycling solution that uses supercritical water to convert waste plastics into shorter chain hydrocarbon products, the equivalent of fossil resource, for use in the manufacture of feedstocks to create new plastics.

The first phase of the project will see the construction of one of four recycling lines, each able to process 20,000 tonnes of plastic waste annually, due into operation by the end of 2022 – the remaining three lines will followin quick succession.

Target waste plastic feedstock is post-consumer, contaminated plastic packaging, including flexible materials such as films, pots, tubs and trays which – until now – have been considered unrecyclable.

There is no limit to the number of times the same plastic can be recycled using HydroPRS™.

Richard Daley, Managing Director at ReNew ELP said:

“We are delighted to announce that our feedstock capacity for the first 20,000 tonne line is now fulfilled via our partnership with Geminor, which marks a milestone stage in the development of this first HydroPRS™ recycling facility and helps divert plastic waste away from incineration and export.

“We are also very pleased to form a partnership with Ecosurety, providing PRNs to plastic producers and increasing the quantity of recycled plastic in the market, alongside utilising their expertise in accreditation and auditing for reprocessors.

“These new partnerships represent another great step forward for the development of the world’s first HydroPRS™ plastic recycling facility.”

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Find out more about ReNew ELP, here.