31 March, 2026

Simpler Recycling – a misnomer?

With Simpler Recycling coming into effect in England today, ReZorce CEO Neil Court-Johnston argues that, while improving collection of household waste is positive, it doesn’t necessarily mean that recycling rates for tricky materials such as composites will magically improve.

In a resource-constrained world with an ever-increasing population, it’s vital that we use resources wisely and efficiently. This means

  • choosing the most appropriate material for the task at hand

  • using the minimum amount necessary

  • keeping products in use as long as possible

  • Disposing of them appropriately at the end of their life

  • Recovering valuable material for use in new products

These principles underpin the circular economy and are the basis on which the UK Government is rolling out Simpler Recycling. 

Packaging, predominantly single-use, accounts for over 20% of UK household waste by weight[1].  Packaging producers, brand owners and retailers have made huge strides in eliminating unnecessary packaging and reducing material use but for food products in particular, packaging remains a key line of defence in maintaining hygiene and preventing food waste, which itself has significant environmental impacts.

Under Simpler Recycling, standardised sorting of packaging waste across all households in England aims to remove the confusion associated with the previous patchwork of different systems across different local authority areas. The overall aim is to boost collection rates and prevent materials that could be recycled from being sent to landfill or incineration.

But collection does not necessarily equal recycled. Nor does a ‘Recycle’ label. 

Maximising recycling rates means choosing materials that are easy to process in municipal waste facilities and have a value as a recycled raw material. Products made of a single material (mono-materials) are preferred, because it’s straightforward to sort them into dedicated recycling streams. Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR), where producers (typically brand owners and retailers) pick up the cost of collection and recycling of packaging, favours mono-materials. 

Composite materials—where less than ~95% of the product is made from a single material—disrupt recycling processes and some products, notably beverage cartons, cannot be dealt with in a standard materials recovery facility.

Traditionally, beverage cartons are made from a material that contains around 75% wood fibre, interleaved with layers of plastic and aluminium, a so-called fibre-based composite (FBC). While Simpler Recycling mandates that beverage cartons are collected kerbside, once they reach the local materials recovery facility, they can go no further.

What happens next depends on whether the waste management company has a contract with the UK’s only facility that can process beverage cartons. The UK uses some 2.4 billion beverage cartons each year [2]but the facility only has processing capacity for 40% of these[3]. So the majority of cartons are incinerated or landfilled. 

At ReZorce, we’ve designed our beverage carton based on circular economy principles. We’ve worked closely with our friends in the waste management sector to ensure ReZorce® mono-material barrier packaging fits with their processes to produce high-quality HDPE recyclate, ready for use in new food packaging, including ReZorce beverage cartons.

FBC cartons don’t work with mainstream recycling: they’re a square peg in a round hole, made from a legacy material developed before we understood the importance of recycling and circularity. 

ReZorce is changing this, offering frictionless switching, reduced pEPR costs and simpler recycling in its truest sense.

[1] https://www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/what-london-assembly-does/questions-mayor/find-an-answer/packaging-waste-1

[2] https://www.mrw.co.uk/in-depth/funding-local-authorities-to-make-the-switch-and-collect-cartons-at-kerbside-20-12-2022/

[3] https://sonocoeurope.com/2020/11/sonoco-alcore-and-ace-uk-open-carton-recycling-facility/#:~:text=Sonoco%20Alcore%20and%20the%20Alliance,beverage%20recycling%20plant%20as%20well.

5 March 2026

USA pilot facility progress update

FIRST LOOK!

Back in November, we reported on the decommissioning of our extrusion pilot plant in Denmark, ahead of its move to the USA.

Today, we’re bringing you the first shots inside our new facility, located in the greater Boston, MA region, as the team works on re-assembly. Despite some seriously inclement weather in the north-eastern USA in recent weeks, they’re making great progress: the logistics and planning that went into shipping 18 containers full of equipment and components is paying dividends.

Next stop – recommissioning. But meantime, huge thanks to the team for their skill and dedication in making this happen.

17 February 2026

Dr Margaret Bates becomes

Advisor to the Board

ReZorce Ltd is pleased to announce that Dr Margaret Bates has been appointed Advisor to the Board.

Margaret is a key figure in the UK’s recycling and waste management sector, most recently having been hired by the UK Government for a 22-month secondment with the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) as Head of the UK Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) Scheme. During her tenure, Margaret worked closely with policymakers across the packaging supply chain to successfully launch the scheme. 

Prior to that, Margaret spent four years as Managing Director of OPRL, the not-for-profit company which helps businesses to assess and access simple, consistent and UK-wide recycling and refill messages to appear on retailer and brand packaging. She also served as President of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management and Professor of Sustainable Waste Management at the University of Northampton. Margaret is passionate about the Circular economy has been involved in waste management for over 30 years, working internationally with businesses and NGOs on sustainable resource and waste management. 

Margaret comments, “The appeal of ReZorce technology is clear: it’s a recyclable mono-material. The drive to mono-materials which are easy to recycle is clear in current and incoming EPR schemes globally. It is really exciting to work with ReZorce and be part of the change to a circular economy.

“ReZorce will have a positive, transformative effect on the beverage carton format, which has long been a challenge for the waste management sector in the UK and elsewhere. I am pleased to be able to support and advise the team on its rollout.”   

Neil Court-Johnston, CEO of ReZorce Ltd, says, “We are delighted and deeply honoured that Margaret has agreed to advise our board. There are few people better qualified to counsel the team on delivering ReZorce as a circular solution that is better all round—for producers, for consumers, for recyclers and for the environment. We welcome her to the team and look forward to exciting times ahead.”

4 February 2026

Work begins on ReZorce pilot facility

It’s been a busy start to 2026 with a new home for ReZorce!

We’re delighted to announce that we are now moving into our dedicated pilot facility, where development of ReZorce® mono-material barrier packaging will continue. Our first goal is to offer ReZorce as an easy to recycle alternative to traditional composite beverage cartons.

ReZorce is designed
✅ for recycling in standard schemes and processes
✅ to incorporate a high proportion of recycled content
✅ to minimise fees where Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) frameworks apply

Over the coming weeks, our fantastic team will be setting up the 30,000 sq.ft pilot facility, located in the Greater Boston (MA) area, with the aim of being fully operational Q2 2026.

“Consolidating operations in a single facility will enable us to accelerate the development of ReZorce,” says CEO Neil Court - Johnston. “Brand owners and retailers are telling us that ReZorce is a solution that is urgently required, as EPR schemes take effect and begin to penalise difficult to recycle materials.

“Although we are planning for early deployments of ReZorce in the UK and EU, using Massachusetts as our development base makes absolute sense. The technology that underpins ReZorce was actually developed at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) so there is an excellent skills base, both within our own team and beyond, to support rapid commercialisation of this game changing product.”

Major milestone completed

We are pleased to announce a significant milestone in our mission to deliver fully recyclable, mono-material beverage packaging. Our former extrusion facility has now been successfully decommissioned, and the equipment is en route to be reassembled within our new pilot plant in December 2025.

The new pilot facility will bring all core production processes from extrusion, print and conversion, filling and packing together under one dedicated food-safe roof. Designed with capacity for early-stage commercial production, the site will support faster progress through the final stages of product development and validation ahead of its planned operational date at the end of Q1 2026.

This transition represents an important step toward scaling ReZorce® mono-material barrier packaging, which is being developed as a recyclable alternative to today’s multi-material beverage cartons.

We extend our appreciation to all partners supporting this journey, and acknowledge the exceptional work of the decommissioning team, whose professionalism ensured a smooth and timely transition.

More updates will follow as we prepare for the next phase of growth.