Veolia Opens Plastics Recycling Plant in UK

Veolia Environmental Services has officially opened a plastics recycling facility in Rainham, Essex, U.K. The facility is the first plastics recycling operation for the company. The facility has been built to support and encourage local communities in the United Kingdom to add mixed plastics to their collection programs.

In a release, Veolia says that the United Kingdom currently collects around 180,000 metric tons of plastic bottles per year, representing a 30 percent recovery rate.

The company invested around £5 million (US$8 million) to build the new facility, which has the capacity to handle up to 50,000 metric tons of plastic scrap per year. Veolia is calling the plant a ‘Parrot’ POLY-mer separation facility, and it is designed to separate up to nine different grades of plastics.

Gavin Graveson, Veolia Environmental’s executive director, says, “This state-of-the-art facility has the capability to adapt to different plastics in the future and will begin to help end confusion for homeowners as to what they can and cannot recycle. We can now achieve a market leading end product for reprocessing materials back into plastic products, closing the loop and feeding the circular economy.”