Specialist PET recycler Enviroo has received the go-ahead to develop its first plastic recycling facility in the UK after a successful planning application led by Axis.
The £165m Plastic Park facility will be built at Peel NRE’s 54-hectare strategic energy and resource hub Protos near Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, creating 50 new permanent jobs and pumping around £20 million into the local economy.
Expected to be operational from summer 2022, the recycling plant will cluster together plastic recycling and recovery technologies to create value from plastic waste, diverting it from landfill, overseas exports and our oceans.
Andrew Russell, Director at Axis, said the team is delighted to have secured planning permission for such a groundbreaking development that “will help reduce the levels of plastic waste generated in the UK each year”.
“The North West is really leading the way in enabling the UK to meet our climate change obligations as part of achieving net zero by 2050,” he said.
‘A greener North West’
Ahmed Detta, CEO and Founder of Enviroo, said that the business is keen to get the development off the ground following a positive consultation with the community.
“We’re delighted to have our planning application approved and look forward to being able to deal with plastic waste here on our shores, helping to create a greener North West,” he commented.
Reusing 100% of the PET it takes in, the facility will sort and wash the waste and transform it into recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) pellets ahead of next year’s incoming tax on packaging that contains less than 30% recycled PET.
“Our first facility will hopefully be one of many as Enviroo looks to provide a solution for packaging manufacturers who are preparing for the upcoming plastic tax legislation,” Ahmed continued. “Our facilities will provide the recycled PET manufacturers need in their products, while reducing the amount of virgin plastic.”
Clever tech to boost recycling rates
Jayne Hennessy, Development Manager at Peel NRE, part of Peel L&P, said that currently, less than a third of all plastic waste in the UK is recycled. The Plastic Park at Protos will hopefully go some way to increase recycling rates and reduce waste to landfill and exports of waste abroad.
“This will be done by clustering together different technologies, including Enviroo’s PET recycling facility and the plastic to hydrogen facility also consented at Protos,” she commented.
“We’ll be able to use technology and improved infrastructure to process many types of plastics collected by local authorities, hopefully giving them the confidence to collect a wider range of plastic in the future”.