After its first nine months of operation since opening, the Continuum Recycling joint venture between Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) and ECO Plastics has processed "a quarter of a billion bottles" through its PET recycling system - the first of its kind in the UK.
According to CCE, the success of the facility – which passed the landmark figure in March 2013 – has allowed it to meet its commitment to use 25% rPET in all its bottles by the end of 2012, said to be an industry first.
Located on the site of ECO Plastics’ existing facility in Hemswell, Lincolnshire, in the east of England, Continuum Recycling is itself described as the “world’s largest plastics sorting plant”, and is now said to be responsible for processing more than 50% of the UK’s bottle grade rPET plastic.
The Continuum plant was also central to CCE’s efforts to recycle all of the plastic bottles used during the London Olympics and Paralympics in 2012, with some 15 million collected and returned within about six weeks to shelves, as part of 63 million new bottles.
Jonathan Short, managing director of ECO Plastics said: “Taking ten months to move from ground breaking to full commissioning for a plant of this scale and sophistication is no small achievement.
“Now to be exceeding our ramp-up plan is further testament to the expertise, dedication and determination of our team [and] is another great milestone for Continuum.”
Describing itself as “Europe’s leading ethical plastic bottle recycler”, ECO Plastics began reprocessing post-consumer plastics in 2006 and has over the past five years invested more than £30m to quadruple its processing capacity and triple the factory footprint.
