PlasRecycle raises £10.7m

PlasRecycle, the first company to recycle plastic bags in the UK, has secured £10.7 million (€12.7 million, $17.2 million) of fresh financing. 

 

The start-up, which plans to open its first plant by the fourth quarter of 2013, has raised capital from a consortium of public and private investors. These include the Foresight Environmental Fund, the London Waste & Recycling Board, and the Waste and Resource Action Program. 

 

PlasRecycle’s first facility will reprocess 20,000 tons of used polythene bags and packaging films, to produce a plastic granulate that can form the raw material for making new bags. Recycling one tonne of plastic packaging will save around 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide, according to a statement released by the company. The plant is expected to create 32 jobs in Woolwich, South East London. 

 

This is the second investment made by the Foresight Environmental Fund in the waste management industry, after its £11 million capital injection in London-based TEG Biogas, which produces energy from food and green waste, last November. 

 

The £70 million fund is managed by Foresight Group, an England-based infrastructure and private equity firm. The vehicle looks into opportunities created by rising energy costs and waste accumulation, projecting that the UK waste management industry will grow more than 37 percent by 2020.

 

Foresight’s infrastructure arm invests in two principal sectors, solar energy and secondary PFI schemes. Earlier this month, it launched its latest vehicle, a solar energy-focused fund to be listed on the London Stock Exchange, with a target of £200 million. 

 

In 2012, Foresight also received a mandate from the Green Investment Bank to manage a £50 million portion of an £80 million fund dedicated to green infrastructure projects across the UK. The vehicle made its maiden investment last July, when lending £20 million to Northern Ireland largest renewables project – a 15.8-megawatt wood-fuelled power station in Derry/Londonderry.