NEWS
WILTON CENTRE COMPANIES LEADING PLASTIC RECYCLING REVOLUTION
Businesses based at the Wilton Centre near Redcar are pioneering global efforts to recycle plastic .
Some of the pioneering
technologies which have been developed are even addressing the problem of the end-of-life plastics which until now have been considered to be unrecyclable and end up in landfill and incineration sites or the world ’ s oceans .
“ The Covid pandemic has understandably dominated our lives and the news over the past few months ,” said the Wilton Centre ’ s accommodation manager Claire Morton .
“ But before that , tackling the threat caused to the environment by plastic pollution had become a top priority for many governments .”
It is estimated that each year around eight million tonnes of plastic waste ends up in the sea . In the UK , the government has set a recycling target of 70 per cent for all the plastics placed on the market . Currently , less than 50 per cent is being recycled .
“ It ’ s a bold statement to say that what ’ s happening at the Wilton Centre could change the world , but that ’ s exactly what ’ s taking place ,” said Claire .
The three companies involved are ReNew ELP , Poseidon Plastics and Mitsubishi Chemical UK . In October , ReNew ELP and Poseidon Plastics were awarded multi-million-pound grants by Innovate UK – the UK ’ s innovation agency – to support their work .
ReNew ELP , which moved to the Wilton
40 | Tees Business
Centre in 2018 , received £ 4.42m to build the world ’ s first commercial-scale plastic recycling plant .
Its managing director Richard Daley said : “ It will increase investor confidence , help innovative technologies such as ours break through and establish the advanced recycling industry in the UK , helping ReNew ELP to emerge as a global leader in plastic recycling .”
The company will use a new technology called Cat-HTR™ ( Catalytic Hydrothermal Reactor ) to convert items such as films , pots , tubs and trays back into the chemicals and oils from which they were made . They can then be used by the petrochemical industry in the production of new plastic and other materials .
Work to build the plant – on the site of the former Invista Textiles site in Wilton – will begin early next year . When operational , it will handle around 80,000 tonnes of waste plastic a year and initially employ 30 people .
Poseidon Plastics received £ 2.6m and will use the money towards building its first commercial facility . The plant will also be in Teesside and when it is completed in 2022 it will process the equivalent of one billion plastic bottles a year .
“ The new Teesside plant will evidence the scalability of our advanced recycling process and help us towards our core goal of making an immediate , significant and sustainable impact on the global issue of plastic waste ,” said Martin Atkins ,
ReNew ELP ’ s pilot recycling plant
Poseidon Plastics ’ chief executive .
The third company – Mitsubishi Chemical UK Ltd – is using its laboratories and office space at the Wilton Centre to develop a circular economy which it is calling molecular recycling .
It will take end-of-life products made out of acrylic – one of the most commonlyused plastics – and reverse the production process to recreate the key raw material , Methyl Methacrylate ( MMA ): the building block of all acrylic products .
Acrylic is used in a multitude of products , such as lighting , car number plates and taillights , signage and medical equipment . The majority of the “ sneeze screens ”, which have been installed in buildings all over the world as a result of Covid-19 , are also made of acrylic .
The company is already planning to build a recycling plant in mainland Europe and David Smith – the circular economy programme lead – described the project as “ seriously game-changing ”.
He said : “ For the business , it ’ s one of the biggest projects in years , because if we get this right we don ’ t just add value to the company , we potentially add value to the world because we ’ re cutting down on CO2 emissions and reducing landfill , for example . The benefits are incredible .”