UK Waste Management Giant Bifa Closes Washington Plastic Recycling Plant, Highlighting Challenges in Scrap Material Recovery Industry

On July 31, Zhuan Su Shi Jie reported that Bifa, a leading waste management company in the UK, announced the closure of its plastic recycling plant located in Washington, Sunderland. According to Sustainable Plastics, the plant will cease operations in early 2025 due to increasingly difficult market conditions, particularly the sluggish demand for cleaned high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) sheets, affecting approximately 80 employees.

The Washington plant was completed in 2020 with an investment of £7 million (approximately €8.1 million). It is a key part of Bifa’s strategy to enhance its recycling capacity for commonly used plastic packaging such as milk bottles, tubs, and trays made from HDPE and PP. In 2023, Bifa had planned to invest a further £13 million to double the plant’s capacity, but this expansion plan was subsequently redirected to another Bifa facility located in Redcar.

The Redcar plant specializes in the production of recycled HDPE food-grade pellets, with an annual capacity of 83,000 tons. After the closure of the Washington plant, it became the core of Bifa's HDPE recycling business.

Currently, Bifa's two other major recycling plants in the UK are still operating normally. The Westham plant, with an investment of £27.5 million, can process up to 57,000 tons of PET bottles annually. The Sherborne plant processes 25,000 tons of PET flakes each year, converting them into food-grade PET pellets. According to media reports, these facilities continue to play an important role in the UK's circular economy.

Biffa processes over 190,000 tonnes of waste plastic annually in the UK, converting it into recycled polymers. However, the recycling industry in the UK and Europe is facing increasing pressure. Industry experts say that domestic production decline, a surge in cheap plastic imports, and worsening economic difficulties are forcing many large and small recyclers to shut down.

In 2024, the total processing capacity loss caused by factory closures more than doubled compared to 2023, and this severe trend is expected to continue into 2025. For example, in 2024, Victoria closed its mechanical plastic recycling plant in Avonmouth, which had only been in operation for two years. Earlier this month, another industry giant, Veolia, announced it would shut down its two plastic recycling plants in Germany by the end of the year.

Despite factory closures, Veolia has still committed to investing £70 million (approximately €81 million) to establish the UK's first closed-loop PET tray recycling plant, indicating that there is still ongoing investment and innovation in this field.