Tesco launches chemical recycling programme for plastics

Thomas Reiner | 03.06.2019

How do you deal with plastic packaging, which until now has been difficult to sort or can’t be recycled? Tesco, the UK’s largest retailer, has now launched a pilot project focused on chemical recycling.

Tesco’s cooperation partner is the British company Recycling Technologies, which has a patented process for the chemical recycling of plastics.

As part of the project, customers from ten Tesco supermarkets will be able to return all types of plastic packaging after emptying, including flexible packaging and composites.

Those packages that have not been sorted or recycled in the UK recycling system are then shipped to Recycling Technologies for chemical recovery.

For Tesco, the project is an important step towards achieving its own recycling goals. At the same time, it hopes to close the last gaps in UK plastics recycling.

Chemical recycling
There are now some processes and patented solutions for the chemical recycling of plastic and composite packaging.
In this case, the plastics are converted back into low molecular weight products such as monomers or high-quality oils and liquefied gas by gasification, pyrolysis, hydrogenation or other feedstock process. These products can then serve as a replacement for fossil raw materials for the production of new virgin plastics.

Incidentally, according to the Federal Environmental Agency, chemical recycling in Germany does not qualify as material recovery in the sense of the Packaging Act, which came into force at the beginning of this year.