Recycling Fund helps Just Recycling to expand

A quarter of the 480,000 investment awarded through the Recycling Fund has been used by Just Recycling for the acquisition of the Bradford waste transfer business of the Associated Waste Management Group.

” The Recycling Fund investment will help us to realise the company's expansion plans.“
– Tim Shapcott, Just Recycling
A statement from WRAP explained that the acquisition “was a key strategic component of Just Recycling's development plans, as it enables the business to achieve improved economies of scale in their operations, but most importantly, the acquisition provided Just Recycling with additional land and premses on which to develop a new reprocessing facility.”

WRAP also said that the support from the Fund means that Just Recycling is a step closer to its goal of becoming the “largest independent waste management business in Yorkshire”.

The organisation said the acquisition would provide the Leeds firm with an extra 75,000 tonnes of waste handling capacity each year.

Extra capacity
Bevis Watts, business and finance programme manager for WRAP, noted that the acquisition would eventually provide extra recycling capacity for the UK as it “provided Just Recycling with additional land and premises on which to develop a new reprocessing facility.”

Mr Watts told letsrecycle.com: “The installation of new, improved reprocessing facilities at its sites in Bradford and Leeds, both made possible by the Recycling Fund investment, will enable Just Recycling to increase its recycling rates from 45% to up to 65%.”

The company will also have its waste handling capacity raised from 120,000 tonnes each year to 195,000 tonnes each year, Mr Watts said.

Finance
The Recycling Fund is providing a total of 5.5 million to assist small and medium-sized recycling businesses develop extra recycling capacity. The fund sees 4 million provided by WRAP itself with 1.5 million provided by Barclays Bank and waste firm Wastelink.

Mr Watts explained that the fund was designed to overcome the “lack of equity finance available to start-up, early stage and developing businesses in the recycling sector”.

Just Recycling was launched in 2001 with a 1 million investment provided by 30 investors. Since its inception the company's turnover has grown by 125% and is expected to near 6 million in 2005, WRAP said.

The recycling firm's managing director, Tim Shapcott, said: “The Recycling Fund investment will help us to realise the company's expansion plans and enable us to significantly increase the amount of materials we recycle.

“We are looking forward to building the business and strengthening our position in the region,” he added.