Member Article

Recycling plant shrugs off fire

A Tyneside-based waste-recycling firm is on track to more than double its sales to £35m, despite a fire destroying half of its main operations.

The managing director of AWS Eco Plastics, Jonathon Short, says initial estimates of repairing the damage to the recycling facility in Lincolnshire are around £15m.

Mr Short says that the undamaged half of the plant could be back up and running in a matter of days, and expects the whole of the plastics-recycling plant to be fully operational in the new year.

Mr Short said: “We will be able to get the recycling facility up and running shortly.

“The half of the factory which has been destroyed is where we do the sorting of the bottles for recycling.

“Initial insurance estimates put the reconstruction costs at £15m. I expect us to have the plant fully operational in the new year.

“We have understanding suppliers and customers. This is a blow, a bit of a blip, but we will recover from it.”

Based on Wallsend’s Britannia Business Park, AWS is the UK’s largest plastic bottle recycler.

It was formed in 2000 to increase the diversion of waste from landfill sites to recycling.

Its core business involves buying waste plastics from recycling companies throughout the UK and Ireland, reprocessing the materials and selling them worldwide.

The fire came the day after the company had achieved a major breakthrough in getting its recycled plastic pellets approved for use in food packaging.

Mr Short added: “Long term the business model is very resilient, we have had excellent support from our investors and our plans for the next three years remain the same despite this setback.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .