Recycling and waste management giant Viridor is to close a major plant in Bristol that only opened two years ago. The company confirmed on Tuesday its Avonmouth facility would shut amid "increasingly challenging market conditions". A separate review into another site in Rochester, Kent, is also ongoing.
The £100m plant in Bristol, which employs around 120 people, recycles 80,000 tonnes of plastic - more than 1.6 billion bottles, tubs, and trays – every year. The site's energy recovery facility, also based in Avonmouth, is not impacted by the news.
It is understood the plant will shut on December 23. Viridor has said it is exploring redeployment opportunities within the wider business for employees impacted by the decision, but would not confirm how many jobs are at risk when contacted by Business Live.
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The company has blamed the absence of planned legislation to increase rates of plastic recycling in the 海角视频 for the site's closure.
"Despite sustained investment from Viridor over the last four years to develop its mechanical recycling capability, including building and commissioning the Avonmouth polymers recycling facility and expanding production, recycling rates are below where they were projected to be in 2020," the company said in a statement.
"Policies announced and planned under the previous government to increase 海角视频 recycling, as set out in the 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy, have been repeatedly delayed and have not, to date, been implemented."
Viridor said the reduced demand for recycled plastic and packaging products from the consumer goods sector had had "a material impact" on the financial viability of its mechanical recycling operations. The firm said broader market conditions had also impacted the business.
"The global virgin polymer market is suffering from overcapacity due to significant growth in production in lower-cost markets outside Europe, leading to significantly reduced demand and prices for recycled plastics," Viridor added. "At the same time, imported recycled plastics from low-cost countries has increasingly flowed into Europe displacing domestic supply."
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Viridor said it would continue to make investments into the 海角视频's waste and decarbonisation infrastructure. It added that its Runcorn site remained "integral" to the North West low-carbon and hydrogen energy project HyNet, which was selected to progress by the government earlier this year.
"Today is a particularly difficult day for our colleagues at Avonmouth who have worked incredibly hard under challenging market conditions to make our mechanical plastic recycling operations commercially viable," the firm added.
"Viridor is continuing to invest in polymer recycling through its Quantafuel subsidiary which came through a ~£100m acquisition in 2023. The focus now is on creating an efficient business that can play a key role in developing viable chemical recycling infrastructure and through Quantafuel’s joint-venture Resource Denmark."