UK’s RPC bpi acquires PLASgran

United Kingdom-based RPC bpi Group has acquired PLASgran Ltd., which RPC bpi describes as one of the largest recyclers of rigid plastics in the U.K. The deal was completed in mid-August.

PLASgran, launched in 1999, recycles nearly 50,000 metric tons of rigid plastics per year. The company is run by a management team led by Mark Roberts.

RPC bpi recycled products describes itself as the largest polythene film recycler in Europe. The company recycles more than 12,000 metric tons of plastic scrap per year and has four locations in in the U.K., in Dumfries, Derbyshire, Gwent and Gloucestershire. RPC bpi focuses on recycling polythene from commercial, industrial, packaging and agricultural sources.

Combined, RPC bpi and PLASgran will be able “to spearhead the U.K.’s efforts to meet the surge in demand for packaging made from recycled plastics,” RPC bpi states in a news release.

“With PLASgran joining our RPC bpi recycled products group, we are now clearly the largest plastics recycler in the U.K. and one of the largest in Europe,” says Gerry McGarry, managing director of RPC bpi recycled products. “This is great news not just for both our business and our customers, but for the wider society. We are in a unique new position to help the UK step up its efforts to meet evermore pressing sustainability goals and to help the environment."

Continues McGarry, “There is a huge demand for increased UK and European plastics recycling for both environmental and commercial reasons. Many major brands and retailers, for example, are quite rightly demanding their packaging is produced and manufactured from genuine recycled used plastics. With our technology, expertise and newly enlarged business we can offer our customers a true ‘closed loop’ solution for the supply and recycling of their packaging.”

PLASgran’s Roberts says, “We are both respected and well-established recyclers in our markets: RPC bpi recycled products focuses on plastic films, while we have developed a major presence in the recycling of rigid plastics with expertise in creating our own recyclate blends.”

Pim Vervaat, CEO of the RPC Group, says, “With [its] experience [in] rigid recycling, the acquisition of PLASgran supports RPC’s strategy to be able to have the complete offering of sustainable design and engineering solutions and meet the market requirements.”

RPC bpi External Affairs Director Mike Baxter will be moderating a session on plastic packaging recycling at the 2018 Paper & Plastics Recycling Conference Europe, organized by the Recycling Today Media Group and taking place Nov. 6-7 in Prague.