Biffa Polymers to invest £6.5 million at Redcar plant

Biffa Polymers is set to make a £6.5 million investment in a new recycling line at its Redcar plant in Cleveland.

The second recycled High Density Polyethylene (rHPDE) line will enable the company, which is part of national waste management services provider, Biffa, to double its output of food grade rHDPE, which is used to make milk bottles and food trays, from 10,000 tonnes per year to 20,000 tonnes.

Expected to be operational from early 2017, Biffa Polymers says the new line will provide extra capacity for plastics recycling at a time when the wider plastics recycling industry is experiencing instability.

“The creation of a new rHDPE line at our Redcar plant will put capacity back into the market to meet the growing demand that we are seeing, which is particularly important given recent events in the plastics recycling industry,” explained Chris Hanlon, Commercial Director at Biffa Polymers.

“Enabling us to double our output, this investment in our facilities and the additional infrastructure it provides will also mean that more scrap plastic generated by UK households can be processed here in the UK rather than being sent abroad for processing.”

“We remain committed to continued investment and improvement in our facilities and our expert team are open to exploring possible growth strategies that will enable us to enhance our offering and increase our processing capacity further in future.”

Established 25 years ago, Biffa Polymers was the first company in the world to achieve food grade status for its recycled High Density Polyethylene (rHPDE) and has picked up a string of awards, including the Queen’s award for Enterprise and Innovation in 2009. To date, the polymers facility has reprocessed over 3 billion plastic bottles.