Nextek Wins Alliance Prize with COtooClean

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage):  COtooCLEAN – the innovative multi-participant project by Nextek Limited – was announced as the winner of the Alliance Prize in Circular Solutions for Flexibles. Following a final pitch by five finalist teams at the New York Stock Exchange on 29 November, Professor Edward Kosior, founder of Nextek was awarded the prestigious prize of $US3million to fast-track COtooCLEAN’s ground breaking process  to decontaminate post-consumer plastic films back to food-grade quality.

The event, that was presented live to global brand owners and investors, was the culmination of months of review by a panel of judges who whittled some 600 registrations  down to 60  fully qualifying submissions and then down to five finalists. COtooCLEAN’s winning process is based on supercritical CO₂ to decontaminate plastic films back to food-grade quality. It aims to fill the gap in the recycling stream where food-safe post-consumer polyolefin films are currently missing. Their unique commercial process can be integrated into mechanical recycling operations and can treat printed and multi-layer films to make them much easier to recycle.

Professor Kosior commented that we now have the potential to make a major contribution to the circularity of films in a global context. Steve Sikra, AEPW VP Americas, Alliance to End Plastic Waste said: “The COtooCLEAN process offers an impactful solution for the high levels of flexible film waste growing around the world. By enabling  food-grade film-to-film advanced mechanical recycling, the process will improve circularity of flexible films by diverting film waste from landfill and lesser value outlets. “The relatively simple modification to the existing mechanical recycling process makes the potential impact of COtooCLEAN even greater because of its scalability to global adoption over time.”

Courtesy: www.wasteadvantagemag.com