{"id":10099,"date":"2025-11-03T09:14:36","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T14:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/?p=10099"},"modified":"2025-11-03T09:14:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T14:14:36","slug":"darlington-plastic-recycling-plant-sparks-health-fears-and-local-petition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.packagingindustrynews.com\/?p=10099","title":{"rendered":"Darlington plastic recycling plant sparks health fears and local petition"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Subject to planning and environmental permissions, phase one operations are anticipated to commence at the end of 2026. Credit: Belish\/Shutterstock.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Plans to install UK\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Endolys intends to build<\/a> pyrolysis oil production units at the site. The company has said that the technology diverts material away from incineration and landfill.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

Local Liberal Democrat campaigner Simon Thorley has started a petition calling for the scheme to be stopped, citing \u201cserious\u201d concerns about the health impacts of a plant that \u201cchemically breaks down plastic waste in the middle of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thorley stated: \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen has challenged the assertions and asserted the new facility\u2019s positive effect on regional employment and investment, stating: \u201cIt\u2019s genuinely bizarre and worrying that instead of backing this investment and the jobs it brings, local\u00a0Liberal Democrats\u00a0would rather talk it down and keep a prime industrial site closed, with not a single job being created.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project is proposed in two phases.<\/p>\n

Phase one, for which \u00a360m 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

All feedstocks would be sourced from municipal waste units.<\/p>\n

Contingent upon planning and environmental permissions, phase one operations are anticipated to commence at the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

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