Plastic recycling company Plysu Recycling has been closed by Nampak, its South African owners. And as no one has yet come forward to buy the business, it is likely to be sold off as an asset sale.
Plysu Recycling, which had a production plant at Woburn near Milton Keynes, was bought by packaging company Nampak last year and Nampak has now decided to wrap up the recycling part of its business as is not one of its “core priorities”. Plysu Recycling had a turnover of 2 million and processed 2,000 tonnes of used plastic bottles a year.
Tom Sully, purchasing director of Nampak, explained the reasons for the company's decision and said: “We are predominantly a packaging company and this is the main activity for Nampak. We decided that the recycling business was a non-core division and to sell it off. The recycling side is now being wrapped up.”
Mr Sully added that although a sale has not yet been finalised, it will probably be sold as an asset sale making the 24 employees of the recycling division redundant.
Plysu Recycling was part of the Plysu Brand division which included houseware and garden products. In September, Nimpak made it clear that it was reducing this side of the business when it sold the houseware and garden products business.
Plysu Recycling was a leading re-processor of post consumer plastic and one of the first company's in the UK to offer a closed-loop recycling solution for local authorities. Used plastic milk bottles were collected and processed at the Milton Keynes materials recycling facility (MRF) which is run by Shanks. The MRF has an on-site flaking machine but it is now unclear what will happen to this. Plysu made products such as water butts, composters and kerbside boxes for purchase by local authorities from recycled plastic. But the closure of the firm shows the problems with plastic recycling in the UK and reiterates the debate over its commercial viability.
Tony Hancock, chair of the Institute of packaging environment group, said: “It is quite sad, one of the original “closing-the-loop” scenarios has gone – it just shows how hard plastic recycling is.”
He added: “Until local authority procurement contracts are specified to include recycled material then closed loop recycling will not be successful. This could be one of the reasons why Plysu has closed down.”
Another industry observer said that the news was “not unexpected” but added: “Plysu is one of the major plastics recyclers in the UK and while it is not a desperate day for plastics recycling, it is not good news.”
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