Sterecyle announces £200 million expansion for waste recycling plants in the UK

Sterecyle’s expansion involves five new recycling plants throughout the UK.Image courtesy of Sterecycle Limited

British waste recycling technology company Sterecyle Ltd. has announced on June 15 a £200-million ($327 million) expansion program to build five new recycling plants throughout the UK to lessen landfill use and waste incineration in the country.

Sterecyle’s expansion involves five new recycling plants throughout the UK. Each plant will be using the company’s proprietary autoclaving technology that can recycle about 70% of waste from a typical household. About half of household waste is processed into organic fiber that the company calls sterefibre®, which can be used to generate renewable energy, land restoration, or manufacture cardboard boxes. About 20% of the waste stream is reclaimed non-organic material such as metal, plastic, and glass that are then recycled. The five new plants, along with its existing plant, will bring Sterecyle’s combined capacity to 1.5 million metric tons a year, which is the annual waste produced by a city of three million people. The new facilities will be built over four years and will create 300 new jobs once completed.

Sterecyle’s first recycling plant opened in June last year in Rotherham, Yorkshire. The plant was the world’s first that used steam to separate and recycle household waste. As of January this year, the plant increased its processing capacity to 200,000 metric tons of waste a year.

Sterecycle will be continuing its funding activities to meet its capital targets. The company has raised £23 million ($37.6 million) in equity finance since it was founded in 2003, with investors including Goldman Sachs, Fidelity International, Impax Environmental, and Ailsa3Ventures. Sterecycle will immediately raise £50 million ($81.8 million) in new equity capital from institutional investors, with UBS as its financial adviser during fundraising.

Driving the need for landfill diversion of solid waste is the UK’s Landfill Tax, which is set to increase to £72 ($118 million) per metric ton by 2013. The Landfill Tax currently stands at £40 ($65) per metric ton, but is scheduled to increase by £8 ($13) a year. A total of 16 million metric tons of municipal waste end up in British landfills every year.

Sterecyle is completely focused on recycling technology to divert solid waste from landfills. The company is headquartered in London.


-  Mike R. Lopez

Sources:

¹ Business Wire
² http://www.sterecycle.com