Big investment creating 50 jobs at recycling firm
WASTE management firm Biffa has created 50 new North East jobs as it doubles recycling at a regional facility through a £13m investment.
The recycling company is increasing capacity to recycle high-density polyethene plastic at its Washington plant, allowing it process a further 14,000 tonnes of the material, commonly used for milk bottles.
The significant investment will grow its total annual capacity to 39,000 tonnes – or 1.6bn bottles a year.
The investment will create 50 new jobs, building on Biffa’s existing investment in the North East, where it employs 115 people across Washington and its £27.5m plastics recycling facility at Seaham, County Durham, which opened last year.
It also operates a further facility at Redcar which employs another 140 people.
The expansion is the latest in a series of significant strategic investments made by what the group says is part of its commitment to building a circular economy.
In the last five years Biffa has invested more than £54.5m in plastics recycling infrastructure with plans to quadruple its plastic recycling capacity by 2030.
The new investment will take Biffa’s overall plastic recycling capacity to 155,000 tonnes each year.
Packaging producers will also benefit from the extended capacity of the high-density plastic recycling.
From next year, packers will be required to use at least 30% recycled plastic in their products to avoid the new packaging tax - and it is estimated an extra 36,000 tonnes of recycled HDPE [high-density polyethylene] will be needed to meet demand.
Mick Davis, chief operating officer for Biffa’s resources and energy division, said: “This investment in Washington is another example of Biffa onshoring recycling capacity in our strategic journey to creating closed loop recycling in the UK.
“We look forward to being able to offer UK manufacturers more highquality recycled plastics and help prevent the export of plastics for reprocessing.
“We have a strong and growing presence in the North East of England, a region which is playing a leading role in the UK’s green industrial revolution, and we are delighted to be creating a further 50 new jobs as part of these plans.”