Ecotech to spend £750,000 on Rainham plant expansion

The company is investing around £750,000 to upgrade the equipment at the £6.5 million plant, which will include a new grinder, centrifuge, ancillary equipment and supporting infrastructure upgrades.

The investment will increase the Rainham-based recycler’s output to over 16,000 tonnes per annum of hot-washed recycled PET flake. Recycled ‘rPET’ flakes produced at the facility can be used to produce food trays, plastic sheeting, new bottles and polyester fibres. Ecotech also produces hot washed polyolefin flakes.

The plant currently has the capacity to produce around 12,000 tonnes of rPET per year, from a total in-feed of around 18,000 tonnes of material.

Ecotech is among the newest entrants to the UK plastics recycling market, and is backed by German PET recycling firm STF Group, the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) and private investors. Former Shanks director Ian Goodfellow is also on board with the project as a director.

Market

The company began operations at the Rainham site in late 2014, during what was a turbulent time for the plastics recycling sector which saw large scale PET recycler ECO Plastics bought out of administration by a German investor, as well as the closure of Closed Loop Recycling.

Volatility in the market has reportedly seen a dip in demand for recycled plastic products, with some manufacturers having switched back to virgin plastic polymers, which have fallen in price. This has consequently led to a fall in the price paid for plastics scrap, although this decline has slowed in recent weeks, with reports that the market has regained some stability.

Despite the volatility in the market, Ecotech has remained confident that it can continue to attract buyers for its end products.

Commenting on the company’s expansion plans, chief executive Javed Mawji, said: “This is the first phase of our planned expansion. Within 12 months we intend to install a second washing line which will double our capacity to over 24,000 tonnes a year. This follows strong demand for the company’s products since we began production at the end of 2014.”

Ecotech’s recycling plant is located on the site of the former Express Recycling & Plastics Ltd rigid plastics sorting plant at the Fairview Industrial Park, which was taken over from Regain Polymers.