— By Eric Culp — 

Calling it “one of the UK’s largest recycling plants”, Reconomy (London; www.reconomy.com) has announced that its local Eurokey division (Kettering; www.eurokeyrecycling.com) will begin processing material at a site in Corby in the second half of this year.

Throughput is quoted at 38,000 t/y, with the facility expected to receive “several grades” of plastics sorted at Eurokey’s Kettering plant, which Reconomy said lies less than 16 km from the new recycling operation currently under construction.

Reconomy, which purchased Eurokey in 2021, explained that the goal is to create a closed-loop system for supermarkets and grocers, with the input of their waste to be transformed into recyclate for packaging they can use.

Eurokey cited the Colby plant cost at GBP 20 mn (EUR 23 mn), noting that it covers 1,282 m².

Zubair Bajwa, director of operations at Eurokey, said, “We are very proud to play a leading role in strengthening the UK’s plastics recycling industry at this critical time.”

Related: Europe’s reclaim sector faces its toughest year yet

The announcement comes at a time of stark concerns about dwindling recycling capacity in the UK and Europe. The British Plastics Federation said late last year that some 400,000 t/y in domestic capacity has vanished. European recyclers reported in February that they have seen nearly 1 mn t/y disappear since 2023 in the EU 27+3.