Berry Global’s recycling business in the UK has recently invested in upgrading its advanced used plastic packaging recycling complex in Heanor, Derbyshire. The facility is able to recycle a wide variety of flexible - or ‘soft’ - plastic waste, including retail packaging such as carrier bags, bread bags, film wrapping, and plastic pouches.
This type of plastic is currently being collected via front of store bins at leading supermarkets, but capacity is expected to rise substantially in March 2027, when kerbside collection of flexible plastic packaging for recycling will become mandatory in England.
The Berry investment comes at a time when these supermarket front of store soft plastic collection schemes are coming under increasing scrutiny. A recent investigation by Everyday Plastic and the Environmental Investigation Agency found that around seventy per cent of the soft plastic collected by these schemes ended up being burned for energy, rather than being recycled.
“Recycling soft plastic poses a challenge, particularly in terms of the quality of material collected, but at Berry we are continuing to work to make recycling of this material a reality through the creation of useful second life products,” said Mike Baxter, External Affairs Director – Berry Global Recycled Products. “For example, front of store soft plastic currently goes into the production of new refuse sacks, while other flexible plastic is used to produce our Sustane™ recyclate which goes back into packaging such as shrink film.”
“Importantly, our latest investment includes an upgrade to our wash plant, which will enable us to handle and clean a greater variety of poorer quality plastic packs.”
The Berry Heanor recycling facility can recycle flexibles from household and industrial waste to produce high quality and consistent recyclate that can be used in a variety of industrial and consumer flexible applications such as refuse sacks and collation shrink films. An important aspect of the design of the facility is that water used during the recycling process is recirculated and reused, significantly reducing overall water consumption.
In addition, the site holds RecyClass certification that confirms full traceability throughout the recycling and production processes. RecyClass is a comprehensive cross-industry initiative that advances plastic packaging recyclability and ensures traceability and transparency of recycled plastic content in the UK and rest of Europe. The organisation has also developed a system for reliable calculation and verification of recycled content in plastic products. Certification at Heanor therefore provides Berry customers with complete reassurance as to the quality and authenticity of the recycled material produced.
The facility is also third party accredited through Valpack for Zero Waste to landfill.