A UK recycling site backed by a major UK supermarket chain and the Scottish government has collapsed into administration a mere eight months after opening.

Yes Recycling (Ashley Green; www.yesrecycling.org) opened its plant in Glenrothes in September 2022 with the intention of processing 15,000 t/y of hard-to-recycle post-consumer plastic and turning it into a form of plastic sheet called Ecosheet.

The Scottish government supported the company with GBP 520,000 (EUR 587,000), and other investors included Scottish Enterprise, Zero Waste Scotland, InvestFife, and domestic producer compliance scheme Ecosurety (Bristol; www.ecosurety.com).

In November, UK supermarket chain Morrisons (Bradford; www.morrisons-corporate.com) also bought what it described as a “significant stake” in the business, noting that it planned to use the Ecosheet product to manufacturer fittings and shelving for some stores.

However a lack of material meant the Glenrothes plant never worked to full capacity, according to administrators Grant Thornton (London; www.grantthornton.co.uk). This resulted in cash flow challenges, particularly in recent weeks, and the company was unable to pay its debts.

The UK government’s company registry showed that at the end of October, Yes Recycling owed creditors GBP 3.4 mn (EUR 3.8 mn).

Julie Tait, restructuring director at Grant Thornton and one of Yes Recycling’s joint administrators, said: “This is a disappointing outcome for all those associated with the company, and our immediate priority is to support the company’s 60 employees while we assess the company’s financial position and seek a buyer for its business and or its assets.”

Tait said the remainder of the Yes Recycling Group, headquartered in Buckinghamshire, is unaffected by the Scottish business going into administration.