A Cambridge company that has developed a recycling technique to extract high-quality metals, oils and gases from the millions of plastic and aluminium laminate containers that are commonplace in kitchens and bathrooms worldwide has raised Series A funding to help it advance to an industrial level service.

The technique is distinguishable by its ability to produce ‘clean’ aluminium – more than 95 per cent pure – which is ready for sale, as well as gases and oils that have a number of uses including fuel and chemical feedstock.

The company says its unique proprietary technology is the first to allow complete recycling of laminate waste packaging in an environmentally and financially compelling way, avoiding the need for many thousands of tonnes of landfill.

It now has two blue chip companies signed on to run recycling pilot programmes and is looking for new premises where it can scale up its activities.

Enval’s recycling process enables recycling of several different types of packaging, but its strength resides in the recycling of packaging materials containing plastic-aluminium lamin-ates often used in drinks cartons, toothpaste tubes and coffee pouches.

These packages are used across both developed and developing countries, offering huge commercial potential. Company founder, Dr Carlos Ludlow-Palafox, said: “This is an international product because the packages we recycle sit on every shelf of every supermarket of every country in the world.”

Enval is using the funding to expand business development and technical capabilities. It is also expected to move into new premises in the Luton area, where Dr Ludlow-Palafox says there is a greater range of the kind of industrial units Enval will require to grow.

He said: “The idea is to bring more commercial traction and optimise the pilot plant. We hope that in 18 months we’ll be at the next stage, by which time we should have pre-production prototype ready somewhere, though not necessarily here.”

The new appointments will also help the business develop a suitable business model.

At the moment Enval is talking to a number of potential partners, but has now settled on whether it will be selling machines, licensing the IP or handling the waste.

The focus for now is the aluminium which can be resold and Enval is concentrating on several different types of the packages including pet food, toothpaste, soups and drinks.

Enval was spun out of the University of Cambridge four years ago and has spent the last two years advancing the technology and raising the money, which took considerably longer than planned.

“It’s a very new technology and we had to find the right balance between how much testing we undertook while the technology was still at the development stage,” said Dr Ludlow-Palafox.

The funding round was led by the East of England Co-Investment Fund (COIN), which is managed by IQ Capital Partners, and supported by Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds, Cambridge Angels and Cambridge Capital Group.

“Enval’s technology offers an easy, environmentally friendly and much needed solution for the yet unresolved problem of recycling aluminium-containing packaging,” said Larissa Brito, from COIN.

“This funding round will enable Enval to accelerate deployment of its ground-breaking technology and enter an exciting phase of growth. The idea is to use this phase of optimisation to showcase to potential partners who use their own materials to demo,” said Dr Ludlow-Palafox.

“We recognise the importance and established position of the use of plastic and aluminium laminated materials in packaging but equally believe that the current disposal methods being used for them are unsustainable.

“It’s clear to us that if the use of these packaging materials is to be continued then solutions are required to minimise their impact on the environment.”