{"id":115395,"date":"2025-11-03T09:40:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T09:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/115395\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T09:40:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T09:40:12","slug":"health-concerns-over-darlington-plastic-film-recycling-plant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/115395\/","title":{"rendered":"Health concerns over Darlington plastic film recycling plant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Health concerns have been raised over plans to open the UK’s first plastic film recycling facility.<\/p>\n

Endolys Ltd announced plans to install pyrolysis oil production units at the former Cleveland Bridge site in Darlington, which it has taken over.<\/p>\n

Liberal Democrat campaigner Simon Thorley has launched a petition calling for plans to be halted, over concerns about the impact of a plant which “chemically breaks down plastic waste in the middle of our community”.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Endolys said the process used diverted “materials away from incineration and landfill” and the appropriate environmental permits would be sought.<\/p>\n

Pyrolysis is a thermal decomposition process that can chemically break down plastic into its constituent oil and gas, the Local Democracy Reporting Service<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

Mr Thorley, who previously stood as a Tees Valley mayoral candidate, said he did not believe this was a “simple, safe recycling plant”.<\/p>\n

“Google what a plastics pyrolysis plant does and make your own mind up,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve made mine up, and we can’t allow it here.”<\/p>\n

Conservative Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen disputed the claims and praised the impact the new facility would have on jobs and investment in the region.<\/p>\n

He said turning a disused site into “good quality jobs for local people” was “exactly the kind of project our area needs”. <\/p>\n

Endolys said plastic film was one of the most challenging plastic materials to recycle in the UK, with no current large-scale recycling facilities available and limited kerbside collection.<\/p>\n

The first phase of the development would see six units process 60,000 tonnes of shredded plastic film waste into 40,000 tonnes of pyrolysis oil each year. <\/p>\n

All of the film waste will be sourced from municipal waste facilities.<\/p>\n

A spokesman explained the process took place within “fully enclosed vessels and within a building”.<\/p>\n

They added: “It does not involve combustion and, in fact, diverts materials away from incineration and landfill, delivering an estimated 170,000 tonnes of CO2 savings per year.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health concerns have been raised over plans to open the UK’s first plastic film recycling facility. Endolys Ltd…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-115395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}