Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019 - 40

Plastics industry awards 2019

Best Business initiative of the year

sustainability on an
industrial scale

(From left) Julia Moore, chief executive at the GTMA, Shaun Williamson (third left),
Richard Nicol, commercial director at Clean Tech (with trophy)

H

Presented by

40

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aving submitted entries for the Best
Environment and Best Business Initiative awards, getting shortlisted
for both was very pleasing," said Kinza
Sutton, head of public affairs and sustainability at Plastipak.
"When we won both awards the attending team was ecstatic, as were our colleagues back at the plant," she explained.
Plastipak bought Clean Tech out of
administration in 2016 and since then
the company hasn't looked back. One of
the leading processors of recycled PET
bottles, the company delivers packaging
solutions for a series of major beverage
companies.
Sutton agreed that the purchase of
Clean Tech by Plastipak could serve as a
template for implementing circular economy solutions.
"[Clean Tech] believes PET bottle-to-bottle recycling is a role model for
the rest of the plastics industry.  Key to our
success is, of course, the initial kerbside
collection and sorting of the post-consumer feedstock.  Clean Tech and Plastipak represent the two final pillars in that
process - reprocessing and an end-market for the recycled product," she said.
Consistent quality in the recycled resin is of critical importance. But beyond
that, it is up to the brand owners to build
demand for recycled packaging. Without

that end market, the business case for
plastic circularity falls over, meaning that
commitment and investment must be
made available across the value chain.
Clean Tech has recently completed a
project to increase reprocessing capacity.
Located in Wallonia, Belgium, the plant will
sort, wash and flake collected PET packaging. This will support a newly-expanded
reprocessing plant in Luxembourg.
In addition to this, Plastipak has partnered with Italian firm Garbo to start
chemical recycling in Italy. This product
will be shipped to the virgin PET resin
plant, also located in Italy.
Asked if Clean Tech will expand beyond
PET and into other plastic types in order
to broaden the company offering, Sutton
noted that in the US, the company recycles HDPE. But has the majority of packaging in the UK is PET, the company will continue to work with that material to expand
business with the existing customer base.
Both trophies won by Clean Tech
(which won the Environmental award as
well) will be displayed at the plant in Lincolnshire. "We use the site for customer
and stakeholder visits to support education about plastics recycling," said Sutton.
"It shows that plastics in the circular economy is a realistic proposition and can be
sustainably achieved on a mass-market
scale."
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Plastics & Rubber World - November/December 2019

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