News / avonmouth
£317m recycling plant to close after just two years
A huge recycling plant that was only opened in 2022 at a cost of £317m is likely to be closed by its owners Viridor due to “increasingly challenging market conditions”.
The mechanical recycling site at Avonmouth aimed to single-handedly cut UK plastic waste exports by around eight per cent while also generating more than 300 GWh of electricity per year, enough to power 84,000 homes.
The ‘state of the art facility’ was officially opened by former resources & waste minister, Jo Churchill, in March 2022.
Avonmouth Resource Recovery Centre on Severn Road is just a few hundred yards within Bristol.
Its owners say that their UK mechanical recycling operations “have been negatively impacted by persistently and increasingly challenging market conditions, and the absence of planned legislation to increase rates of plastic recycling in the UK”.
In a statement, Viridor said: “Despite sustained investment from Viridor over the last four years to develop its mechanical recycling capability, including building and commissioning the Avonmouth polymers recycling facility and expanding production, recycling rates are below where they were projected to be in 2020.
“Policies announced and planned under the previous Government to increase UK recycling, as set out in the 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy, have been repeatedly delayed and have not, to date, been implemented.
“The significant delay in implementing these policies, combined with reduced demand for recycled plastic and packaging products from the consumer goods sector, have had a material impact on the financial viability of Viridor’s UK mechanical recycling operations.”
Viridor said their decision “is a particularly difficult day for our colleagues at Avonmouth who have worked incredibly hard under challenging market conditions to make our mechanical plastic recycling operations commercially viable”.
They add: “The proposed closure of Avonmouth will be subject to the normal consultation process, and Viridor is currently exploring redeployment opportunities within the wider Viridor business for those colleagues impacted by this decision.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
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