SUEZ targets hard-to-recycle products with TerraCycle buy-in
Waste management firm SUEZ has acquired 30 per cent of the targeted community collection programme TerraCycle and plans to use the new partnership to develop ‘innovative’ collection and recycling programmes throughout Northern Europe.
TerraCycle develops selective collection systems aimed at providing ways to recycle items and products that are traditionally not handled by recycling collections. In recent years, these programmes have included cigarette butts and waste, air fresheners and biscuit wrappers. The different programmes, of which the company has run over 100, see TerraCycle partner with major consumer goods companies, brands and local authorities to create drop points and postal collection services.
SUEZ says that through the partnership it will develop new solutions for recycling previously unrecyclable waste in the UK, Belgium, Finland, France, the Netherlands and Sweden.
In particular, the firm says that it will use its stake in TerraCycle to expand its range of services for products that require complex packaging and therefore need very specific collection and sorting processes to be recycled.
‘Creative and scalable solutions’ to traditionally unrecycled waste
Jean-Marc Boursier, SUEZ Deputy CEO for the recycling and recovery business in Europe, said of the deal: “We are delighted to embark on this innovative partnership with TerraCycle. Its aim is to recycle more and more waste, even the most complex, by relying on the commitment of everyone – including individuals, local authorities and businesses – wishing to transform waste into new resources for an even more circular and more virtuous economy in Europe.”
David Palmer-Jones, who heads up the UK recycling and recovery arm of SUEZ added that, by joining forces, the companies will be able to address known and emerging waste streams that pose a challenge to recycling-conscious consumers.
“SUEZ’s investment in TerraCycle allows us to harness the combined skills of both companies to deliver innovative, creative and scalable solutions which tackle problematic and emerging waste streams in the UK and across Europe”, he said. “SUEZ’s investment in TerraCycle will benefit UK customers both today and in a post-Brexit future.
“The UK remains a key European market both for SUEZ and TerraCycle, and a market where, through innovation and collaboration such as this investment, so much more waste material discarded by business and industry could be put to better use.
“Using the knowledge of both companies, we can ensure that even the most complex and challenging waste streams are put to good use in a sustainable, long-term and economically viable way – whether its coffee pods, cigarette butts, laminated biscuit wrappers or the next, as yet unknown, generation of tricky-to-recycle products.”
More information about SUEZ and TerraCycle can be found on the companies’ websites.
