Annually, over 348 million tonnes of plastic are consumed globally, 64 million of this within the EU and 5 million tonnes in the UK. However, very little of this plastic is recycled. Here in the EU, we recycle a mere 25% of the plastic that is collected for recycling, with only around 5% being reused in packaging applications. The reason for this is difficulty - not only are plastics very hard to separate from one another but they are also hard to reuse in high-value application such as packaging, due to high levels of contamination and unsuitability for remanufacture.
ReVentas has developed a disruptive new technology that can purify PE and PP of all pigments and additives allowing it to be returned to a 'virgin-like' polymer state. This will be an entirely new way to extract value from recyclate and enable it to be used in a wider range of applications. Recycled plastics will be more valuable and relevant to end-market applications making their use far more widely spread and increasing the quantity of recyclate moving back into packaging and other high-end applications.