UK waste management firm Biffa (High Wycombe; www.biffa.co.uk) said it has completed the GBP 10m (EUR 11.6m) purchase of what it called Scotland’s only post-consumer plastics recycling facility from Green Circle Polymers (GCP, Grangemouth; www.greencirclepolymers.com). Processing capacity at the Grangemouth plant was quoted at 50,000 t/y.

Biffa said the purchase of the facility supports its plan to quadruple recycling capacity by 2030, which was introduced earlier this year (see Plasteurope.com of 25.03.2020), around the same time the company announced plans to increase its available HDPE reclaim processing by 14,000 t/y to 39,000 t/y, an expansion expected to raise total plastics recycling capacity to 155,000 t/y. Biffa said the acquisition in Scotland comes ahead of the country’s scheduled implementation of its deposit return scheme on 1 July 2022.

“As a leading enabler of the circular economy in the UK, this investment helps us support Scotland’s vision of a greener future, as it prepares to introduce the deposit return scheme to reduce littering and improve recycling levels,” CEO Michael Topham said.