London community receives recycled-content refuse bags

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Paris-based Veolia recently delivered the first shipments of recycled refuse bags to residents in the London borough of Southwark that were manufactured with recycled plastics through the company’s July 2015 Bag2Bag program.

Under the program Southwark residents can deposit plastic bags at various collection points throughout the community for use in a circular manufacturing program managed by Veolia.

The collected bags are reprocessed by CeDo, a plastics manufacturer based in Telford. The bags are washed and shredded into small pellets which are then blown into bubbles of plastic film to form new bags. As of July, 1,000 metric tons of plastic bags had been transformed into 500,000 refuse sacks, Veolia says.

“Plastic bags are rarely collected by local authorities, so I’m happy to be working with Veolia to deliver on our commitment to send fewer materials to landfill,” says Darren Merrill, Southwark Council cabinet member for recycling and the environment.

“This is a great illustration of the shared contribution of Veolia and the residents of Southwark to the circular economy. And if this trial is successful, we hope to roll it out to other local authorities,” adds Richard Kirkman, Veolia's Technical Director in the United Kingdom.

Veolia says the 8 billion plastic bags disposed of in England every year create an enormous environmental challenge. The results of a recent scientific expedition known as Tara, supported by the Veolia Foundation, indicate that the Mediterranean Sea contains 5 kilograms of plastic per square kilometer.