Turning smoothie bottles into salad bowls
The Closed Loop Recycling plant will take 35,000 tonnes of plastic bottles each year - enough to go twice around Britain's coastline - and recycle them into food-grade plastic. As part of our ongoing partnership with Closed Loop, we'll be buying material from the plant to make some of our food and drink packaging.
On 26 June, Closed Loop Recycling held an open day at their new recycling plant in Dagenham. The plant will take 35,000 tonnes' worth of plastic bottles annually - enough to go twice around Britain's coastline - and turn them back into recycled food grade plastic. As part of our ongoing partnership with Closed Loop, we'll be buying material from the plant to make some of our food and drink packaging.
Closing the loop.
"This plant represents the evidence that the UK is undergoing a recycling revolution - until now there has been no facility to recycle bottles back into plastic food packaging", explains Chris Dow, Managing Director, Closed Loop Recycling. "Each plastic bottle that we recycle reduces the bottle's carbon footprint by around 25%."
We have already pioneered an office recycling scheme with Closed Loop as part of the relaunch of the Food to Go range. Customers who've signed up to the office recycling scheme in the London area will be collecting the appropriate used Food to Go packaging (along with other office and lunchtime waste) so it could be sent to the Dagenham plant. The food grade flake produced by the plant could then be used in new Food to Go packaging.
Using leading edge technologies, Closed Loop Recycling will find a new use for plastic bottles, so make sure you recycle them whenever you can and your M&S smoothie bottle could come back in its next life as a salad bowl!
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