A ‘bin-win’ situation

Single-use plastic is a hot topic around the festival season, as revellers leave behind mounds of unrecyclable plastic at music sites every year, of which a large amount is single-use food wrappers. Sixty British festivals have even pledged to go single-use free by 2021¹ – but outright bans don’t address the issue of what people bring on site and what to do with these unrecyclable plastic items to keep them out of landfill and the eco-system.

Thanks to their patented technology, Recycling Technologies have an answer. Teaming up with Barclays, 25 unique recycling bins have been installed at Barclaycard presents British Summer Time Festival in Hyde Park , to collect and recycle almost all of the previously unrecyclable plastic that is brought onto site by the public². The bins will be on-site from 8 - 11 July 2019, with staff helping to direct festival-goers to the recycling points.

From snack packets to pots, plastic bags to bottle caps, these bins will accept various forms of previously unrecyclable plastic, which will then be taken to Swindon and turned into ‘Plaxx’, a raw material used to create new plastic.

The bins are being trialled to show the potential with the technology at a large-scale event, but it has applications anywhere single-use plastic is used and discarded.

The campaign hopes to collect up to 4400 litres of plastic at the festival, saving it from being wasted.

Recycling Technologies are a high growth entrepreneurial company based in Swindon that are passionate about plastic. They have engineered a modular and scalable machine to recycle previously unrecyclable plastic.
If every local authority in the UK used Recycling Technologies machines, the percentage of plastic that can be recycled could dramatically increase from c.10% up towards 90%.

Other recycling systems are able to turn some plastic into lower-grade items, but Recycling Technologies’ unique system means the recycled plastic is high enough quality to go back into consumer products – every time it is recycled – which keeps the plastic out of the ecosystem and ensures it continues to play a useful role.

Recycling Technologies are from the 2016 cohort of our Unreasonable Impact programme, a Barclays and Unreasonable Group partnership. As part of this, they have gone through an intensive long term accelerator programme, and have been provided access to our business leaders’ expertise, resources and contacts to support the organisation’s growth through their most challenging issues. Since launch of the Unreasonable Impact programme in 2016 we have supported 32 UK organisations, which in the next 5 years will aim to generate 16,000 new jobs³.

We’re proud to help them on their journey as we all need businesses like Recycling Technologies to succeed. Their success will help solve pressing societal issues and generate growth and UK jobs the country needs.

To find out more about Recycling Technologies visit their website

Read the latest press release

Amongst the one million UK businesses Barclays supports each day, we’re helping a group of high growth entrepreneurs aiming to solve the world’s biggest societal and environmental challenges. Entrepreneurs like Recycling Technologies see that dealing with these challenges can also be enormous business opportunities. And with our support, they can continue to scale their innovations and create new jobs in the UK.

This is just one of many examples of how Barclays is Backing the UK. Whether it be supporting growing UK business, launching a £14bn lending fund for SME’s, or delivering over 100 Brexit clinics in local communities; Barclays is committed to Backing the UK. 

As part of this activity, see how we also supported Airlabs, a pioneering air filtration company, clean the air in our much loved London Taxis. Find out more about a this partnership with Airlabs.

¹   Association for Independent Festivals, Drastic on Plastic Report (2019) https://aiforg.com/initiatives/drastic-on-plastic/
² As part of sustainability efforts, all plastic used at the festival is fully recyclable and can be placed in the standard recycling bins. The Recycling Technologies bins will recycle plastic brought onto the site by the public only.
³ This commitment comes via the Unreasonable Impact programme. For further details please visit https://unreasonablegroup.com/initiatives/unreasonable-impact/