A very interesting read: a new one-of-a-kind recycling plant in the UK called The Closed Loop claims to be the first in the world to take both milk bottles and clear drinks bottles and turn them back into food-grade plastic.

Once it is up and running, the £13m facility aims to help create a continuous cycle by enabling manufacturers to use recycled plastic from the UK in their food and drink packaging.

“Essentially the consumer buys their product, say, a bottle of Coca Cola. If they do the right thing with that bottle and place it in the recycling it will have every chance of ending up at our plant and eventually being turned back into another Coke bottle,” says Closed Loop London’s managing director, Chris Dow.

But bottle to bottle recycling, as it is known, could go some way towards answering growing consumer ire about packaging.

The stringent processes used at the Dagenham plant will strip out any bacteria or toxins, says Mr Dow. He adds that Closed Loop aims to deal with 35,000 tonnes of used plastic a year.

Click here to read the entire article, including a detail description of the recycling process.