A world-leading plastics reprocessing plant in Bristol touted as being an essential part of the UK’s move to a circular economy when it opened two years ago is to close.
Operator Viridor blamed challenging market conditions and a lack of pro-recycling legislation for the shutdown. 
The firm, owned by US investment giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), said the decision to close the £100m plant at Avonmouth, pictured, followed a detailed strategic review of its UK mechanical recycling operations.
The move is a blow to Bristol’s ambitions to be home to some of Europe’s most advanced recycling centres as the city moves towards its ambition of being carbon neutral by 2030.
But industry observers said it reflected a market now suffering from a lack of demand for recycled material and reduced investment in domestic recycling and over capacity, including from low-cost competitors based outside Europe.
Difficulty in getting the government to support recycling initiatives was also said to have played a part in stifling growth in the sector.
When the Avonmouth plant, which employs around 120 people, opened in 2022 it was the UK’s first, plastics reprocessing and energy recovery facility (ERF) in one building. 
At the time, Viridor said the plastics reprocessing facility would reprocess 80,000-plus tonnes of plastic a year – more than 1.6bn bottles, tubs and trays – creating recycled raw material to return to the economy.
It also said plastic recycling at the facility would save 126,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year – the equivalent of taking more than 67,000 cars off the road.
The ERF was designed capacity to divert 320,000 tonnes of non-recyclable household waste from more polluting landfill every year, generating more than 300 GWh of electricity a year – enough to power 84,000 homes.
Heralding the scale of the operation at Avonmouth, Viridor forecast that just five more plastics reprocessing facilities of the same size would end all plastic waste exports from the UK.
In a statement this week, the firm said its UK mechanical recycling operations had been “negatively impacted by persistently and increasingly challenging market conditions, and the absence of planned legislation to increase rates of plastic recycling in the UK.”
It continued: “Policies announced and planned under the previous government to increase UK recycling, as set out in the 2018 Resources and Waste Strategy, have been repeatedly delayed and have not, to date, been implemented.
“The significant delay in implementing these policies, combined with reduced demand for recycled plastic and packaging products from the consumer goods sector, have had a material impact on the financial viability of Viridor’s UK mechanical recycling operations.
“This has been exacerbated by broader market conditions – 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.
“At the same time, imported recycled plastics from low-cost countries has increasingly flowed into Europe displacing domestic supply. The combination of these pressures has resulted in today’s decision.”
