A project to assess the feasibility of recycling flexible laminated packaging, such as food and drink pouches as well as toothpaste tubes, in existing household recycling schemes is underway in the UK. The project, a public-private partnership led by consultancy Anthesis LRS (www.anthesisgroup.com), involves testing different methods for collecting the material at kerbside locations in London, Berkshire and Yorkshire. Microwave-induced pyrolysis technology provided by Cambridge University spin-off Enval (Huntingdon / UK; www.enval.com) will be used to recycle the packaging by separating the plastic and aluminium – see Plasteurope.com of 26.01.2015.

The nine-month project, which began last month, is funded by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), with collaboration from Nestle and Coca-Cola. Collections and initial sorting are being organised by waste management specialist Suez Environnement (Paris / France; www.suez-environnement.com), and Enval will recycle the material at its demonstration facility.

The trials will enable project partners and other industry stakeholders to evaluate the potential to include flexible laminated packaging in mainstream recycling collections in the UK, said Stuart Hayward-Higham, technical development director at the UK recycling and waste recovery division of Suez Environnement.

Enval managing director Carlos Ludlow-Palafox added: "These trials are providing an important opportunity to prove that we can successfully capture and recycle the valuable aluminium, as well as recover the plastics as a fuel oil product. This will present a solid business case for Enval's microwave-induced pyrolysis technology to be bolted on to existing materials facilities and help increase levels of recycling across the UK."