Plans to install UK’s inaugural large-scale plastic film recycling facility at the former Cleveland Bridge site in Darlington, County Durham, in the northeast of England, have prompted a local campaign and a petition over health concerns.
Endolys intends to build pyrolysis oil production units at the site. The company has said that the technology diverts material away from incineration and landfill.
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According to Endolys, plastic film is a difficult-to-recycle material in the UK, with limited kerbside collection and no current large-scale recycling facilities.
Local Liberal Democrat campaigner Simon Thorley has started a petition calling for the scheme to be stopped, citing “serious” concerns about the health impacts of a plant that “chemically breaks down plastic waste in the middle of our community.”
Thorley stated: “We the undersigned, call on Darlington Borough Council, our MP, and the Tees Valley Mayor to block plans for a plastic waste pyrolysis plant at the Cleveland Bridge site, as it risks the health of all local residents.”
Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen has challenged the assertions and asserted the new facility’s positive effect on regional employment and investment, stating: “It’s genuinely bizarre and worrying that instead of backing this investment and the jobs it brings, local Liberal Democrats would rather talk it down and keep a prime industrial site closed, with not a single job being created.”
The project is proposed in two phases.
Phase one, for which £60m has been raised, would deploy six units to process 60,000 tonnes (t) of shredded plastic film waste into 40,000t of pyrolysis oil annually.
A second phase, contingent on further funding and approvals and described as costing a similar amount, would process an additional 60,000t of film waste into a further 40,000t of oil.
All feedstocks would be sourced from municipal waste units.
Contingent upon planning and environmental permissions, phase one operations are anticipated to commence at the end of 2026.
