UK project gets £3m funding for recycling research in Scotland

LONDON (ICIS)–Scotland’s ‘Project Beacon’ has secured £3m funding –  £1.7m coming from public sector – to research ways of recycling plastics in the UK nation, its promoters said on Wednesday.

The enterprise will include four projects that, according to Zero Waste Scotland, a public body promoting the project, could potentially “recycle all plastics in Scotland and beyond”, even those which currently cannot be processed for recycling.

Public body Zero Waste Scotland, under the umbrella of the Scottish Government, and the European Regional Development Fund will contribute with £1.7m to the project through its Circular Economy Investment Fund.

An additional £1.7m will come from the private sector, with recycling companies like PI Polymer Recycling, Recycling Technologies and Impact Recycling taking part.

Binn Group takes part in the project as supply chain partner.

“The system they’re developing uses new state-of-the-art separation systems to support mechanical recycling, fused with a game-changing chemical feedstock recycling process,” said Zero Waste Scotland.

“This includes a patented process based on thermal cracking, which recycles end-of-life plastic waste that typically cannot be recycled using mechanical methods – for example, mixed, laminated, black, film and even contaminated plastic waste, as well as hard plastics.”

According to the promotes, this new process would produce a range of chemical products that could be used to create new virgin plastics or other chemical products.