UK polymer recycling company Biffa Polymers (High Wycombe; www.biffa.co.uk) is investing GBP 6.5m (EUR 8.3m) in a new recycled HDPE (rHDPE) line at its Redcar plant in Cleveland / UK. The investment will enable the company to double its output of food grade rHDPE, which is used to make milk bottles and food trays, from 10,000 t/y to 20,000 t/y. The new line is expected to be operational from early 2017.

Biffa Polymers said it is expanding its HDPE recycling to meet growing demand, at a time when plastics recycling markets are unstable – see Plasteurope.com of 14.07.2015. “The creation of a new rHDPE line at our Redcar plant will put capacity back into the market to meet the growing demand that we are seeing, which is particularly important given recent events in the plastics recycling industry,” stated Chris Hanlon, commercial director at Biffa Polymers. “Enabling us to double our output, this investment in our facilities and the additional infrastructure it provides will also mean that more scrap plastic generated by UK households can be processed here in the UK rather than being sent abroad for processing,” he added.

New jobs will be created as a result of the investment, but Biffa does not yet know how many, Hanlon told local news services.