We are ready, are you?

Enval’s technology was recently showcased on Sky News as part of the Sky Ocean Rescue Project, a campaign that aims to educate and inspire people to reduce the amount of plastic waste produced every day. Sky News Correspondent, Becky Johnson, visited Enval’s commercial-scale plant in the UK and saw the waste packaging being fed to the plant and the aluminium it produces, ready for reintroduction to the aluminium supply chain to make new aluminium products.

The Sky feature explains that the Enval process is ready to prevent tens of thousands of tonnes of waste ending up in landfill sites and our oceans. This claim is backed by a recent DEFRA-sponsored study and collection trial, which demonstrated that laminates can be readily collected with and separated from other dry recyclables and that the Enval solution is both profitable and environmentally beneficial. Our mission is to ensure that people everywhere can place plastic aluminium laminates in the recycling bin safe in the knowledge that the valuable resources embedded in them will be recovered and reused.

This ought to be the end of the story. But as the Sky News piece illustrates, there is still a problem. We aren’t there yet and the reason why goes back to the relationship between the waste sector and innovation. In order for waste innovation to succeed, we need not only a commitment to investment but a radical shift away from suspicion and scepticism. And in this area there remains much to be done: waste is a complex sector with many, sometimes conflicting, interests. It’s often not clear whose responsibility it is to help innovative companies to deploy their technology. But progress is vital if we as an industry are to reap the benefits that innovation can deliver.

Fortunately, there are many organisations who are genuinely committed to supporting our solution. Enval is working with consumer goods companies who use this kind of packaging extensively and want to do something tangible to help prevent many thousands of tonnes of valuable resources from ending up in landfill every year. In our experience there are some brands which take their responsibility towards the environment very seriously and are prepared to really “put their money where their mouth is”. Equally, there are some brands that although say they care, their actions do not match their words. Consumers can explore the website to see which brands are helping us to promote the fact that, although post-consumer plastic aluminium laminates are not yet being processed because of the complexities of the waste handling sector, they are in fact fully recyclable with the Enval process. We gratefully acknowledge their support.