Recycling and waste management firm to shut £100m Bristol plant

Recycling and waste management company Viridor is to close a major plant in Bristol which employs 120 people and only opened two years ago.

The company said its Avonmouth facility would shut amid “increasingly challenging market conditions”.

A separate review into another site in Rochester, Kent, is also ongoing.

The company said Viridor’s 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.

It said that despite sustained investment from 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 company added.

A statement said: “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. This has been exacerbated by broader market conditions; the global virgin polymer market is suffering from overcapacity due to significant growth in production in lower-cost markets outside Europe, leading to significantly reduced demand and prices for recycled plastics.

“At the same time, imported recycled plastics from low-cost countries has increasingly flowed into Europe displacing domestic supply. The combination of these pressures has resulted in today’s decision.”

The company added: “Today 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. 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.”