Waste management company Veolia Environmental Services has opened its first plastic recycling facility at its Rainham site in Essex.

The £45 million plant, which opened yesterday (1 November) on Coldharbour Lane, will process up to 50,000 tonnes per annum and has created 45 new jobs in the area.

Nicknamed the ‘Parrot’ after the fact that the facility separates ‘POLY-mer’ (groan), the plant can reportedly separate up to nine different grades of plastics ranging from bottles to yoghurt pots and trays through its confidential ‘magpie’ sorting technology. The plant has been built in Veolia’s old MRF building at the site.

Veolia hopes that the facility will encourage more local authorities to adopt mixed plastic recycling collections. According to the company, if every local authority across the UK adopted mixed plastic recycling it would help save over 300,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, the equivalent of taking approximately 75,000 cars off the road each year.

Gavin Graveson, Executive Director of Veolia Environmental Services, said: “This state-of-the-art facility has the capability to adapt to different plastics in the future and will begin to help end confusion for homeowners as to what they can and cannot recycle. We can now achieve a market leading end product for reprocessing materials back into plastic products, closing the loop and feeding the circular economy.”

A spokesperson for Veolia has said that the opening of the plant represents 'phase one' of the company's plans, and that we should 'watch this space'.