Viridor breaks ground at £12.5m Kent recycling plant

The £12.5m project, which is being overseen by Stadler UK, will also be capable of separating up to 10,000 tonnes of glass from combined input streams when it opens later this year.

“Our industry is at the heart of making the green economy a reality,” said Viridor’s director of resource management Herman van der Meij. “Making the most of the resources we have within the UK is becoming increasingly important as it creates employment opportunities and helps the country achieve its ambitions of becoming a leader in sustainability.

“We have had a strong presence in the South East of England for quite some time, developing resource-management infrastructure as well as investing in our people to make sure we deliver a high quality service and added-value to our customers as well as value to society and broader stakeholders.
“This latest investment is a signal of our real commitment towards helping develop a circular economy in the UK.”

The plant, which will create 26 permanent jobs, is the first plant of this size to have the capability to recover mixed plastics as well as comingled glass and cans. The plastic will be recycled into high quality, clean plastic grades ready to be used in the production of new plastic products and packaging. 

Plastic to landfill

Trevor Smart, UK sales manager of Stadler UK, said: “We are delighted to be working with Viridor on this prestigious development. The combination of our expertise in the design and delivery of plastics recycling facilities and excellent working relationship with Viridor will see this multi-million-pound, state-of-the-art facility open for processing later this year.”

Speaking on behalf of Recoup – a leading authority on plastics waste and resource management – Stuart Foster added: “We are delighted to see another PRF about to come on stream. It is imperative that the UK is able to recycle more of its plastic resource as this will cut the use of virgin feedstock, help achieve the increasing packaging recycling targets, reduce the CO2 load and, very importantly, significantly reduce the amount of plastic which ends up in landfill.

“We congratulate Viridor and its technology-supplier Stadler UK on this new facility.”

Luke Nicholls