Veolia plans large-scale plastics recycling facility in UK

French waste and recycling firm Veolia has announced plans to design and operate an $95 million plastics sorting and recycling facility in Battlefield, England.

Veolia says it will retrofit an existing, disused industrial facility to host the recycling plant as part of a larger $1.35 billion investment in such technology to be made by 2030.

The company says the planned Battlefield plant will be equipped to handle 80,000 metric tons of discarded plastic annually and will be staffed by more than 130 people. It also planned the announcement to coincide with a visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to the U.K.

Veolia says the facility will host a “tray-to-tray” closed-loop recycling system for discarded thermoform polyethylene food packaging scrap (PET).

Currently, according to the firm, the U.K. does not have a closed-loop facility to recycle PET trays into food-grade materials “due to the difficulty in achieving the required standards.”

Veolia says it will bring its established technology to the U.K. that will allow it to shred, wash and flake PET plastic from trays and bottles to be recycled into new food-grade packaging.

Construction on the facility has begun, with plans for the site to be operational by early next year.

“Today’s announcement marks a major milestone for the U.K. recycling industry and a key pillar of Veolia’s GreenUp plan to drive sustainable resource management,” Veolia CEO Estelle Brachlianoff says. “By becoming the first company in the U.K. to recycle PET trays through a fully closed-loop process, we are reinforcing our leadership as a pioneer of the circular economy.”

Veolia employs more than 215,000 people on five continents. In addition to waste management, the company’s business units are involved in providing and handling water and energy.

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“At this critical time for the plastics recycling industry, with a number of players exiting the market due to low end market demand and macroeconomic concerns, it is crucial that the U.K. has innovative domestic recycling facilities," Veolia UK CEO Gavin Graveson says.

“There is significant potential to grow the plastic recycling market, with 2.2 million tons of plastic packaging put on the market each year in the U.K. Building a world-leading, profitable circular economy is essential—not only to create jobs but also to support the nation’s net zero ambitions.”