Hi-Cone, a manufacturer of ring carriers for the beverage industry, has partnered with TerraCycle to help consumers recycle the plastic ring carriers in the UK.

Hi-Cone said that it is planning to launch the recycling initiative in May 2019 across the UK by creating a network of ring carrier recycling points for public access.

The company has laid a strategy to ensure ring carriers are 100% recyclable or compostable by 2025.

The company is encouraging community groups and individual consumers to set up locations for their communities, where the public can drop off ring carriers after use, and can be sent free of charge, to TerraCycle for recycling.

Through its scheme, consumers can search online for their nearest dedicated collection point, or sign up as a private collector and download freepost labels to send their used ring carriers in for recycling.

Hi-Cone president T. Kenneth Escoe said: “We are extremely excited to be launching this new initiative with TerraCycle which means that our product is now fully recyclable in the UK. Moving forward, our goal is to recover and reuse as many plastic ring carriers as possible worldwide, and the TerraCycle partnership helps us to achieve that.

“Hi-Cone has long been dedicated to reducing its environmental impact and this latest project forms part of a broader strategy that will ensure ring carriers are 100% recyclable or compostable by 2025. It is vital that packaging producers take the lead in pushing sustainable programmes forward, and that is why we have stepped in at this stage of our own journey to champion this process with TerraCycle.”

Hi-Cone said that if its initiative for recycling ring carriers is successful across the UK, it will consider expanding the scheme across Europe, the US and beyond.

TerraCycle Europe general manager Laure Cucuron said: “To date, we have some 80 million people engaged in collecting waste materials across 21 countries and typically these programmes are funded by brands or municipalities.”

“It is therefore very refreshing to have a packaging manufacturer such as Hi-Cone engaging with us and taking responsibility for the materials it sends into circulation. We have a shared responsibility to close the material loop and we would encourage more packaging producers to work with us and to follow the example Hi-Cone is setting.”