Plastics reprocessing company Recycling Technologies has announced a new partnership with Swindon Borough Council to develop a ‘first in England’ advanced plastics recycling facility (aPRF).

Recycling Technologies uses a chemical recycling technique – called feedstock recycling – to process plastic waste that would otherwise go to landfill or incineration. Using the company’s RT7000 machine, the plastics are turned into a crude oil equivalent called Plaxx, which can be used to make new plastic products.

The company will be working with Public Power Solutions, a wholly-owned company of Swindon Borough Council, to assess the feasibility of developing the new recycling facility, which it says would be able to process ‘virtually all plastics’. The facility would utilise Recycling Technologies’ feedstock recycling capabilities as well as mechanical processing machinery.

The proposal is the result of a research project, Project Lodestar, led by Recycling Technologies as a part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative. With partners from across the plastics value chain, Recycling Technologies designed a blueprint for a facility where all plastics could be recycled using state-of-the-art mechanical and feedstock recycling.

The results of Project Lodestar have already led to the development of the world’s first demonstration aPRF in Scotland, where Recycling Technologies’ first commercial RT7000 will be situated. This development, called Project Beacon, is located at the Binn Eco Park in Perthshire and aims to process between 15,000 and 25,000 tonnes of plastics a year.

Bernie Brannan, Managing Director of Public Power Solutions, said: “Having seen the results of the Project Lodestar, we are committed to having a Lodestar-inspired facility in Swindon by 2020 in order to make Swindon the leading council in England for plastic recycling.”

Swindon is already home to Recycling Technologies’ headquarters, as well as its 25,000 square foot manufacturing facility, opened in November 2018, where the company hopes to upscale the manufacture of its RT7000 machines.

Adrian Griffiths, CEO and Founder of Recycling Technologies, commented: “We are delighted that Swindon, the home of our manufacturing facility and HQ, is hoping to also be the home of England’s first aPRF which includes our RT7000 feedstock recycling machine. There is an urgent need for more plastic recycling capacity in the UK to not only stem the flow of plastics into landfill and our environment, but to also create jobs and boost economic prosperity across the region.”

In October last year, it was revealed that Swindon Borough Council was considering temporarily ending its kerbside plastic collections, in part due to the high cost of the service. After engaging with residents on the issue, the council published its 10 Year Waste Strategy in November 2018, setting out plans to undertake further research into plastics collections and processing. The new recycling facility will feed into Swindon’s commitment to finding and developing new technologies for waste treatment.