UK company Hi-Cone is the first non-branded company to join TerraCycle’s recycling scheme. The business manufactures plastic ring carriers for the beverage industry and hopes to create a circular system whereby customers will be able to drop off the plastic rings at collection points to be recycled.
Hi-Cone aims to recycle as many rings as possible and turn them into composite lumber, park benches and outdoor furniture. “Moving forward our goal is to recover and reuse as many plastic beverage carriers as possible, and Hi-Cone will be monitoring the progress of this initiative very closely as it rolls out across the UK,” said Kenneth Escoe, president of Hi-Cone.
Escoe also added that Hi-Cone hoped to make its ring carriers 100 percent recyclable and compostable by 2025.
According to the British Plastics Federation, 99 percent of plastic bottles in the UK are collected at kerbside, and 76 percent of pots, tubs and trays are also collected while ring carriers are collected by very few local authorities.
