EMR to clean up with £17m plant

A WARRINGTON recycling firm has secured a multi-million cash injection to build a new plant with its American partner.

European Metals Recycling has formed a joint venture with US firm MBA Polymers Inc to develop a £17m plastics recycling plant.

The plant is being developed in Worksop and is expected to process 80,000 tonnes of waste every year.  Work on the site is underway and is scheduled to complete early next year. A new joint venture company – MBA Polymers UK – has been set up to run the operation.   

The plant will recycle cars and consumer electrical goods to recover complex plastics-rich material. It is estimated that more than 12 million tons of plastics from cars and electrical and electronics equipment are disposed of each year around the world.

These plastics are often land-filled or incinerated as it is considered too complicated or expensive to recover and to separate them.

California-based MBA Polymers Inc is a world leader in recycling high value plastics from and has built two of the most advanced recycling facilities in the world in China and Austria.

European Metal Recycling is the UK’s largest metal recycling company, handling more than 10 million tonnes of materials from consumers, industry and demolition works per year.  The company, founded in 1994, operates from more than 100 locations around the world.  

MBA’s founder Dr Michael Biddle said: “The MBA Polymers UK facility is an exciting development, as it expands our company’s global ability to deliver high quality resins from recycled plastic with a very small carbon footprint.”

Steve Lewis, Mark Taylor and Debra Barclay from Royal Bank of Scotland provided funding for the deal.

Mr Lewis said:  “Both MBA and EMR are leaders in their respective markets and will bring considerable expertise to this venture.  We are very pleased to provide the funding for the Worksop site and look forward to seeing it fully operational.”