Improved cleaning system enhances closed-loop recycling for paint containers

Amcor is enhancing its award-winning closed-loop recycled paint container initiative, with the introduction of an improved cleaning system for the emptied paint cans.

Launched in 2022 and the winner of the 2023 Horners Bottlemakers Award, the Amcor closed-loop system, which was developed in partnership with waste paint reengineering specialist Paint360, provides a means for finished paint cans to be recycled once the bulk of the residual paint has been removed to be used for new paint. The recycled plastic is then incorporated into the manufacture of new paint cans.

This solution has helped to reduce the environmental impact of waste paint and packaging. According to the British Coatings Federation (BCF), 98% of leftover paint ends up landfilled, incinerated or down the drain, while too much residual paint in the containers can make them more difficult to recycle.

Critical to the success of the project is to effectively remove the small amount of paint that remains in the containers before they are reprocessed. Paint360 has now developed a new system that replaces the more traditional washing method and in this way is able to further minimize any potential environmental impact of this part of the process.

Since we first launched this scheme, we have been on a learning curve, identifying what works well and where there are areas for improvement. This is particularly important to enable further scalability of our project and the introduction of additional schemes.

Lee Cole, managing director and co-founder of Paint360.

The cleaned and shredded plastic material is reprocessed at the Amcor Circular Polymers facility in Leamington Spa, UK, and the paint containers incorporating the recycled material manufactured at Amcor’s Oakham, UK factory.

This project is helping to achieve circularity for one of the hardest-to-recycle packs, turning waste paint and used containers into new paint and new packaging. With this advanced cleaning system in place, we are able to achieve a consistently higher standard of recycled plastic.

Mark Roberts, Amcor’s director of materials innovation.

The closed-loop recycled paint container project is also being supported by the BCF’s PaintCare programme, which aims to create a circular economy for leftover decorative paint in the UK, increasing the re-use or re-manufacture rate to 75% by 2031.

This article was originally published by Amcor.