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‘Milking the Opportunity’: Closed Loop Recycling and the Dairy Supply Chain in Dagenham, UK

Dagenham, United Kingdom - 2008

Domain of application: Local, regional

Status: Existing

Stakeholers: 

  • Dairy Supply Chain Forum's

The dairy industry’s ambition to reduce carbon emissions and thus improve its public image was the primary driver for changing its business models. Retaining as much as possible of the carbon embedded in the milk bottle plastic through recycling provided part of the solution to this problem; moreover light-weighting milk bottles would also reduce the cost of production per bottle, thus providing an economic incentive for change with the added benefit of simultaneously curbing carbon emissions.

The Dairy Supply Chain Forum’s (DSCF) Taskforce (a group which brings together all parts of the dairy supply chain) enabled the industry to collaborate, compromise where necessary and agree on changes to reduce its carbon footprint. In 2008, the dairy industry took the initiative to instigate change that resulted in the creation of the UK Dairy Industry Roadmap. By creating an environment for communication and collaboration, a reliable and sustainable recycled plastic supply-demand relationship was established.
There were also technical hurdles to be overcome to make the recycling process commercially viable. Discussions between the reprocessors, manufacturers and retailers allowed increased understanding of the issues faced by reprocessors, leading to the development of widely adopted materials standards.

For example, the bottle cap tint concentration was reduced and the bottle labels were redesigned to use glue that decomposes at a temperature that does not interfere with the recycling process. These tweaks to the product design not only prevent physical problems with recycling, but also allow the colour quality of the plastic to be maintained so as to still appear aesthetically pleasing to customers when used in the remanufacturing of new milk bottles.

Collaboration successfully led to the drafting of a Roadmap for incorporation of recycled plastic in manufactured milk bottles, to which all major players agreed. The targets laid out in the Roadmap guaranteed suppliers and customers for Closed Loop Recycling’s processes. Consequently, a circular system was formed that enables around 10% of the plastic from milk bottles collected in the UK to be recycled and remain in the national materials supply chain, while providing economic and material security benefits to the aforementioned portion of the chain.

 

                                                  

 

From 2010, the UK has been successful in decreasing the weight of plastic milk bottles by 10% alongside incorporating at least 15% recycled high-density polyethylene into all major retailer bottles. This has resulted in 12.000 tonnes of plastic being recycled to make new milk bottles and a CO2 emissions saving of 27.000 tonnes in 2010 alone. Bottle manufacturers were aspiring to increase the recycled component to 30% by 2014, as well as continuing to decrease bottle weight in order to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. When the recycled element reaches 50% the carbon footprint per milk bottle will decrease by up to 25%.
 
Plastic milk bottles bought from any wholesale supermarket can be easily recycled at plants similar to Closed Loop Recycling. The recycling plant itself has estimated that through the recycling of plastic bottles (a significant proportion of which are milk bottles) approximately 52.500 tonnes per annum of carbon dioxide is prevented from being emitted into the atmosphere.