Industry

Business in brief - 10/12/20

Walkers invest in carbon-capture technology to reduce potato waste

Walkers has teamed up with clean tech company CCm Technologies to reduce its carbon footprint by turning its potato waste into fertiliser.

The new technology will look to manufacture low-carbon fertiliser using potato peelings left over from making crisps.

The fertiliser will be returned to farms in the UK where potatoes for Walkers crisp are grown.

Walkers is planning to install CCm's equipment at its Leicester factory next year, to begin wider production in preparation for its 2022 crop.

Once supplied at scale, the fertiliser is expected to reduce Walkers' potato-based carbon emissions by 70 per cent.

Walkers anticipates that the new initiative could help the company towards becoming carbon-negative in its potato production over the next decade.

David Wilkinson, Senior Director of European Agriculture at Walkers brand owner PepsiCo, commented: "From circular potatoes to circular crops, this innovation with CCm Technologies could provide learnings for the whole of the food system, enabling the agriculture sector to play its part in combating climate change.”

"This initiative is a step in the right direction, and we will continue working hard to lower the carbon impact of our products from field, through manufacturing sites, to consumption.”

Ian Sheppard, Managing Director at EMRUrban mining to contribute to Action Plan on Critical Raw Resources

EMR Metal Recycling has suggested ‘urban mining’ can be used to help the European Commission deliver its Action Plan on Critical Raw Resources.

Europe has a limited amount of materials such as lithium, cobalt and nickel and there is increasing demand for a steady and sustainable supply of these resources.

The European Commission has predicted that for just electric vehicle batteries and energy storage, Europe will need up to 18 times more lithium by 2030 and up to 60 times more by 2050.

Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission’s Vice-President for Inter-institutional Relations and Foresight, has warned: “We cannot allow current reliance on fossil fuels [to be replaced] with dependency on critical raw materials.”

To stop this from happening, the Commission released its action plan that suggests solutions which will reduce Europe’s reliance on third-countries, diversify how these materials are sourced and improve resource efficiency and circularity to make use of the materials Europe already has access to.

The ‘urban mining’ philosophy involves extracting and reusing precious materials from a diverse range of scrap materials.

Thierry Breton, Commissioner for the Internal Market at the Commission, said: “By diversifying the supply from third countries and developing the EU’s own capacity for extraction, processing, recycling, refining and separation of rare earths, we can become more resilient and sustainable.

“Implementing the actions that we propose will require a concerted effort by industry, civil society, regions and Member States.”

Terracycle announces completion of multi-million funding investor raise into global reuse platform Loop

Terracycle, manager of Loop Global Holdings LLC, this week (7 December) announced the completion of the Series A Founding Investors capital raise for global reuse platform Loop, from which the capital is expected to fund operations to profitability.

Investors of the combined $25 million founding include P&G, Nestle, SUEZ, Aptar, Sky Ocean Ventures, ImpactAssets and Quadia.

Tom Szaky, TerraCycle CEO, said: “Given Loop’s global momentum and the limited amount of capital being raised, it was important for us to pick partners who firmly believe in Loop’s mission to establish modern-day reuse systems.

“With this community of partners, Loop is the beginning of the end of disposability, making reuse a viable and accessible option for CPGs, retailers and consumers.”

Launched in May 2019, Loop provides consumers with durable packaging that can be reused up to 100 times, and is fully recyclable at the end of its lifecycle.

This year saw the reuse system’s collaboration with multinational retailer Tesco, providing the company’s customers with refillable packaging for a host of everyday products. To date, Loop has enlisted over 100 brands globally, and offers approximately 400 products.

Loop was founded and is managed by TerraCycle, which operates specialty recycling services in 20 countries, facilitating the recycling of products and packages that would otherwise be incinerated, including contact lenses, beauty care, coffee capsules, oral care, cigarette butts and PPE.

Alongside Loop, TerraCycle is developing other solutions to reduce and eliminate waste to help a global green recovery from COVID-19, and has just launched a capital raise of $150 million in global parent company, TerraCycle Inc, in order to help with that effort.

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