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Expansion of Veolia plastics recycling operation in East London hailed by Mayor

French firm Veolia has announced the acquisition of manufacturing assets in East London that will soon see London’s mountains of plastic waste recycled into bottles.

The investment by the resource management firm will see it master the whole supply chain, from collecting bottles from homes and workplaces, through all the recycling steps culminating in the manufacture of food grade pellets that can be turned into new plastic milk bottles.

Veolia’s UK-wide recycling operation will be boosted thanks to the investment, creating 30 jobs and allowing the firm to make and sell recycled product out of the 200m plastic bottles that it collects annually across the country.

Estelle Brachlianoff, Senior Executive Vice President Veolia UK and Ireland commented: “We are very interested to collaborate in this space since co-operation with the manufacturing sector, the people actually making things from recovered materials, is essential in order to be successful for the long term.

“This is a great opportunity to work in tandem with our Rainham plastic recycling facility to turn the high density polyethylene (HDPE) milk bottles back into bottles and we are excited at mastering the full supply chain by moving into this type of manufacturing. This shows once again Veolia’s commitment to investment in the UK.”

The waste management company, which has contracts in place for a large chunk of London’s boroughs, claims that the move will help to make its collections more sustainable as well as bring down the costs for local councils.

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, hailed the investment and sees the move as another stepping stone to making the capital’s waste and recycling programme more efficient.

He said: “I am determined to redouble efforts to increase the amount London recycles so I am delighted that Veolia has purchased this important facility.

“This plant will be able to recycle all of the capital’s empty milk bottles – a mountain of waste that would otherwise have been sent to landfill. This is good news for London and good news for the environment.”

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