Developers, Peel NRE, have submitted plans to build a £165 million recycling plant in Ellesmere Port, capable of processing up to 367,500 tonnes annually of waste material for reuse.
The £165m Plastic Park will be located at Protos, the company’s strategic energy and resource hub in Cheshire, and bring together processing and treatment technologies to minimise the amount of waste plastic going to landfill.
A plastic-to-hydrogen facility and PET recycling plant have already been approved for the site, and will help supply the North-west’s hydrogen fuel network, HyNet, as well as seeing food and drinks packaging recycled into new products.
New facilities are expected to create over 130 jobs for the local economy, as well as helping the North-west meet its net-zero carbon targets by saving 170,000 tonnes of CO2 annually through the recycling facilities.
Ahead of a consultation process on the plans before their submission to Cheshire West & Chester Council, Richard Barker, Development Director at Peel NRE, part of Peel L&P, said:
The Plastic Park is an innovative way of managing our plastic waste. It will be a single location where mixed materials can be sorted and processed, maximising the amount that can be recycled. We’ll be able to take almost all types of plastic, providing a simple solution for local councils. We envision multiple Plastic Parks throughout the country which will help manage waste plastic on our own shores. This will allow us to create a circular economy, starting in the North West.”
Once complete, the site will be home to:
- A Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) to separate out card, paper, glass and cans and send on elsewhere for recycling
- Two Plastics Recycling Facilities, one to sort mixed plastics into different types, and one for washing and processing of plastics into flaked plastic, suitable for manufacturing new products
- Polymer Laminate Recycling Facility, separating aluminium foil from plastics in items such as crisp packets and baby food pouches, allowing both to be reused in new products.
- Hydrogen refuelling station, supplying up to 1000kg hydrogen fuel to vehicles, both for internal use at the plant, and HGVs from outside the facility