Speaking to letsrecycle.com yesterday, the London-based company revealed that it hopes to build up to five autoclave plants in the UK over the next three years after completing its latest round of equity financing last week.
 Sterecycle founder Duncan Grierson reveals biomass created from the company's autoclaving process |
The firm raised 7 million from US investment bank Goldman Sachs and 1 million from existing investors – including waste management entrepreneur Andy Hinton, who sold medical waste company White Rose Environmental for 35 million in 2004.
The investment gives Sterecycle access to over 40 million in capital altogether to exploit its autoclave technology.
The technology uses high-temperature steam in a series of pressure-vessels to treat mixed waste, removing recyclable materials for reprocessing and reducing the biodegradability of the remaining fraction.
Capacity
The company said plants it is proposing generally cost in the region of 10 million each, with a processing capacity of about 100,000 tonnes of mixed waste each year.
Sterecycle is already assembling its first UK plant, split between two sites in Cumbria, which it hopes to be operational by 2007.
Commenting on the Goldman Sachs investment, Duncan Grierson, chief executive and founder of Sterecycle, said: “This fantastic funding give us more flexibility in terms of the scale of projects we can look at and allows us to be more aggressive and ambitious. We want smaller contracts, because PFI contracts are incredibly expensive to bid for and take too long. There's lots of possibility outside of the PFI structure.”
Simon Mansfield, managing director of Goldman Sachs, said: “With an impressive management team and significant added capital on its balance sheet, we believe that Sterecycle is extremely well-positioned to develop its market share in the UK.”
Process
Sterecycle claims its autoclaving process can recycle of 80% of household waste by treating it with steam heated above 140 degrees centigrade. Mechanical sorting then converts biodegradable waste into a biomass, which can be used as a fuel, paper pulp or soil conditioner.
The system also steam-cleans non-organic material such as plastics and metals, making them easier to recycle, the company said.
Mr Hinton, who has been chairman of Sterecycle since investing last year, said: “Using the Sterecycle process for treating household waste is a massive step towards achieving national recycling targets and is also cost-effective for local authorities. We are able to offer five- to 10-year contracts to local authorities unlike typical 25 year contracts necessary for other technologies.”
Contracts
Sterecycle is currently bidding for five local authority contracts, and revealed that it has been shortlisted for a five-year, 25 million “interim” waste contract for Bradford city council (see letsrecycle.com story).
Subscribe for free