Continuum Recycling, the recycled-PET joint venture between Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) and Eco Plastics, celebrated its one-year anniversary by reaching the milestone of half a billion bottles processed since opening in May 2012.
Lord de Mauley toured the facility, witnessing first-hand the technology and people driving the transformation of plastics reprocessing in Great Britain.
Located on the site of Eco Plastics’ facility in Hemswell, Lincolnshire, the development of Continuum Recycling created the world’s largest plastics reprocessing facility, more than doubling the amount of bottle-grade recycled plastic (rPET) previously created in Britain.
The site is now responsible for processing around 50% of all the plastic bottles collected in the UK and played a key role in Coca-Cola’s recycling efforts during the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In total, some 15 million plastic bottles were collected from Games venues and returned to shelves as part of 63 million new bottles, during a process that lasted as little as six weeks.
“Continuum has shown the real benefits of recycling,” said Lord de Mauley, waste & recycling minister at Defra. “It has helped to cut down on waste and brought millions of plastic bottles back into use which would have otherwise been sent to landfill. The plant has further helped Lincolnshire’s rural economy to thrive by creating more jobs. This is exactly what we want to see.”
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