Viridor has signed a five-year contract with consumer goods group Procter and Gamble (P&G) for the supply of recycled plastic.

The contract will see Viridor supply high-density polyethylene (HDPE) to P&G, saving the equivalent of 200 million bottles of virgin plastic over five years.

As founding members of the UK Plastics Pact, both companies have pledged to reduce their use of plastic, committing to achieving a 30 per cent average recycled content across all plastic packaging by 2025. P&G is also a founding member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste – a partnership of businesses from across the plastic value chain committing to invest $1 billion (£767 million) in recycling infrastructure, research and waste clean-up.

P&G Purchases Group Manager Adam Selby commented: “Viridor is an established innovator in the area of sustainable packaging. This collaboration accelerates P&G’s 2030 goal to reduce our use of virgin petroleum plastic in packaging by 50 per cent. As a founding member of The Alliance to End Plastic Waste, we are committed to helping to minimise and manage plastic and promote solutions like this for used plastics.”

Explaining that Viridor has been supplying P&G with post-consumer recycled material for the past three years, Viridor’s Resource Management Managing Director Keith Trower said: “The true measure of success is reflected in seeing our product on supermarket shelves. Viridor is committed to delivering quality to the circular economy.

“Quality control is crucial to our recycling operations – this is how we ensure we can offer manufacturers competitive alternative circular economy stock as opposed to their sourcing virgin stock.”

In September, Viridor announced plans to process all of its plastic waste domestically, and with the UK Government now set to ban the export of plastic waste to developing countries, the company has focused its attention on developing the UK’s plastic reprocessing infrastructure, with its £65-million Avonmouth plastic recycling plant due to open later this year.

Viridor’s Managing Director of Recycling, Simon Hicks, explained: “In addition to our specialist polymer facilities at Rochester and Skelmersdale, we have invested £65 million in the new recycling and reprocessing centre at Avonmouth, near Bristol, the UK’s largest multi-polymer plant. Our investment in sophisticated recycling infrastructure will not end here.

“We have been very clear about our commitment to investment, innovation and collaboration to drive the circular economy in the UK, with this programme reflecting the clear preference for recycled material.”

The new Avonmouth facility was the centrepiece of Viridor’s 2019 Sustainability Report, which highlighted the company’s commitments to improving its environmental impact through three areas of priority: plastics, biodiversity and sustainable finance.

In addition to Viridor’s partnership with P&G, the company has signed similar contracts to supply recycled plastic to Unilever and Klöckner Pentaplast (kp).