Sustainability Professionals Shown how to Tackle Plastics Waste at RWM 2012

The Luxus (UK) team will be at stand 19T55, RWM 2012, the UK’s specialist trade exhibition for waste management and resource efficiency on the 11th-13th September, at Birmingham’s NEC.

UK technical plastics waste recycler Luxus, will be showcasing its ‘closed’ and ‘open loop’ recycling services for plastics waste at RWM 2012. These specialist services have been developed to enable local authorities, manufacturers and more recently, major retail logistics businesses to minimise their environmental impact and reduce waste disposal costs. It also offers confidential waste recycling for obsolete, damaged or discontinued products.

Malcolm Odlin, Purchasing Manager, Luxus, explains: “Sustainability professionals have increasingly recognised that our services have enabled them to boost recycling rates, prevent unnecessary landfill taxes and have helped them to meet stringent legislative goals, while providing the opportunity to generate revenue too.

“Each year however, over half a million tonnes of plastics is used to manufacture new products and yet half still ends up in landfill. We want to work closely with sustainability professionals to help tackle increasingly varied plastics waste streams to produce high quality, innovative polymers - so closing the ‘loop’ to achieve zero landfill.

“We’re also backing the British Plastics Federation (BPF) in its call to reform the packaging waste recovery note (PRN) system. The BPF is proposing a target for waste reprocessed in the UK (PRN) and a separate target for exports of waste (EPRN). The proposed reform of the system would enable better focus on the creation of quality products to be marketed by UK reprocessors, while still facilitating exports abroad without penalising the UK recycling sector. We’re well placed to help local authorities and manufacturers make this important shift if this is adopted.”

Luxus has been working with local authorities for example, since as far back as 1986, offering a ‘revenue generating’ or no charge recycling closed loop service known as the ‘Bin2Bin’ scheme. This is where products at their end of their natural life are used as a resource to remanufacture the same product.

Luxus purchases the ‘end of life’ bins and provides free nationwide collection from the customer’s site. On arrival at the plastics processing plant, the bins are washed, shredded, granulated and then melted. The materials are then mixed with additives and colours ready for sale to bin manufacturers.

The local authority then receives a weight return ticket to claim land tax credits. Or, Luxus can completely ‘close the loop’ by forwarding the resulting reformulated colour matched compound to a molder to manufacture new bins for re-entry into their own supply chain.

Luxus has one of the most technically advanced compounding and laboratory facilities in the UK for processing rigid plastic scrap and film. It’s able to sort, shred, clean, granulate and extrude most types of plastic including HDPE, MDPE, LDPE, PP, PC, PS, ABS, and PA etc.