Nestlé invests in UK’s Impact Recycling

Switzerland-based food and beverage company Nestlé says it has agreed to provide Newcastle, United Kingdom-based Impact Recycling with an $8.78 million loan so Impact can “get its pioneering process off the ground” to recycle flexible packaging such as candy wrappers and snack bags.

According to Nestlé, Impact Recycling will use the loan in part to open a new facility in Durham, U.K., to “process hard-to-recycle flexible plastics, typically used in food packaging, into pellets [that] can be used to make new flexible products such as [mailing pouches] and refuse bags.”

Impact calls its process the Baffled Oscillation Separation System (BOSS), which Nestle says “sorts the waste plastics by spinning them in water, meaning that different materials either sink or float, depending on their density. This makes it easier to take the correct materials to be recycled.”

The Durham facility, when it opens, will have the capacity to accept 25,000 metric tons annually of flexible plastic and produce pellets Nestlé says can be used to replace virgin plastic films in construction and agriculture applications, as well as be used to make garbage bags. “This means the facility has the potential to recycle more than the amount of flexible plastic packaging Nestlé UK and Ireland places on the market,” the consumer goods company says. 

Packaging such as KitKat candy bar wrappers, Purina pet food pouches, Rowntree candy bags and Nestlé cereal bags all can be collected at supermarket collection points so they can be recycled, Nestlé adds. 

“I am thrilled to be joining forces with Impact Recycling and helping fund this new plant in Durham,” says Sokhna Gueye, head of packaging at Nestlé UK & Ireland. “At Nestlé, we are dedicated to ensuring our packaging can have multiple lives and doesn't end up as waste in landfill. Supporting innovative technologies like this is just one of the many steps we are taking towards achieving this goal."

Gueye adds, “In the U.K. and Ireland, our efforts continue at pace to ensure as close to 100% of our packaging is designed for recycling by 2025, and we continue to work towards all of our packaging being recyclable or reusable. It is fantastic to see our packaging given a second life, and we are looking at many partnerships to help encourage the collection and recycling infrastructure in the U.K.” 

David Walsh, CEO of Impact Recycling, says, “We are delighted to partner with Nestlé on this initiative to develop a 25,000-ton commercial recycling plant for postconsumer flexible plastic. Without the funding from Nestlé this development would not have been possible. “

Also providing funding is government-affiliated agency Innovate UK. Paul Davidson of that organization says, “We’re delighted to be supporting this project, driving innovation to increase the U.K.’s capacity to recycle flexible plastic packaging is a priority area for the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge, and this facility is a great step towards the U.K. meeting its Plastic Pact targets.”