Creating a high-capacity plastic waste recycling plant

Avonmouth Resource Recycling Centre

Plastic waste is on the rise. According to some estimates, only 9% is currently recycled globally and this is expected to triple by 2040.

Looking to boost recycling capacity in the United Kingdom, we worked with our client, Viridor, on their Polymers 2 Resource Recovery Centre (RRC). Built adjacent to Viridor’s Avonmouth energy-from-waste (EfW) plant, Polymers 2 was a reprocessing centre with a throughput of 80,000 tonnes per year of waste plastic.

In a UK first, Polymers 2 was co-located on site with—and supplied with heat and power from—the existing EfW. Our team was responsible for the principal design, interface integration and management, and programme development for the ambitious scheme. Our broad experience and understanding of the technologies and concurrent processes helped create a seamless interface between the technology provider, site operations, and invested parties—covering process design, civil and structural engineering, and construction.

Challenging market conditions, delays to UK legislative efforts to increase recycling, and reduced demand for recycled plastic from the consumer goods sector ultimately led Viridor to close the RRC after two years of operation. However, having demonstrated the ability to annually process 80,000 tonnes of plastic, Polymers 2 remains an important example of the UK’s ability to domestically produce recycled material for re-use at scale.