Mr McAulay was speaking to letsrecycle.com ahead of the official opening of the firm’s £12.5 million plastics sorting facility in Rochester, Kent, for which he cut the ribbon last week (November 6) (see letsrecycle.com story).
Reflecting on his time at the helm of Viridor and the direction he is seeking to lead the company, he commented that the firm is still affected by volatility in recyclate prices, but noted that it is increasingly seeking to invest in facilities capable of producing high quality material.
Investment
Mr McAulay highlighted the firm’s Rochester plastic sorting plant and the £25 million glass plant in Lanarkshire (see letsrecycle.com story) as positive examples of the company’s commitment to producing high quality recycling.
He said: “In terms of investment we very carefully analyse input, throughput and output and the optimisation of that. In the UK we are seeing some significant challenges. The market is maturing and we have some very high recycling targets so there is a degree of immaturity in terms of whether the markets have settled down and can we see reliability in terms of recyclate prices. That’s not quite there to the degree we would like to see it. Government is assisting in that to some degree but I think everyone recognises that there is a need for change there as well.
“There is a degree of maturity to go through to make the market more stable and more efficient for companies like ours, and a degree of consolidation that has to take place within the sector as well. There is a vast array of players and a vast array of qualities in terms of recyclates in particular.”
Background
Mr McAulay joined the Taunton-based waste firm from US water treatment and environmental engineering firm MWH Global in August 2013 (see letsrecycle.com story). He had previously worked as managing director of capital programmes at Cheshire-based water and sewage services firm United Utilities.
An extended version of the interview in which Mr McAulay discusses recycling targets, export of waste derived fuels and collection quality is available in the video above.
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