{"id":590931,"date":"2026-05-18T17:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T17:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/590931\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T17:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T17:22:08","slug":"viridor-considers-closing-chemical-plastics-operations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/590931\/","title":{"rendered":"Viridor considers closing chemical plastics operations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Viridor said the move reflects \u201csignificant pressure\u201d facing plastics recycling markets across Europe, where demand for recycled polymers has weakened amid competition from low-cost virgin plastics.<\/p>\n

The company added that current policy and regulatory frameworks in both the UK and EU are failing to provide the certainty or enforcement needed to support long-term investment in advanced recycling infrastructure.<\/p>\n

It is proposing to cease operations at its chemical recycling facilities in Oslo, Skive and Malm\u00f6, subject to local consultation and negotiation processes.<\/p>\n

These facilties form part of the Quantafuel platform, which Viridor acquired fully in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The plants will remain operational while discussions continue with employees, and Viridor stressed that no final decisions have yet been made.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Viridor said its priority during the consultation process would be to support affected employees.<\/p>\n

It also confirmed that any potential closure of its chemical recycling operations would not affect the day-to-day operations of Resource Denmark\u2019s mechanical recycling and decarbonisation business, nor its core UK energy-from-waste activities.<\/p>\n

The proposed closures would represent another setback for the plastics recycling sector following Viridor\u2019s decision to shut its Rochester mechanical plastics recycling facility<\/a> in August 2025 due to what it described at the time as \u201cwider market challenges\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lee Hodder, Managing Director for carbon capture and circular solutions at Viridor, said: \u201cA significant share of plastic can\u2019t be recycled through conventional methods.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, it is sent for energy recovery, sent to landfill, or exported overseas, increasing emissions and reinforcing reliance on making new plastic from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe technology works. But the problem is the broader business reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Problems in the recycled plastics market<\/p>\n

Hodder added that recycling markets are ultimately shaped by government policy and warned that, without stronger incentives and enforcement, the sector would continue to struggle against cheaper virgin plastic production.<\/p>\n

Viridor is now calling for a series of policy interventions to support the development of advanced plastics recycling.<\/p>\n

These include stronger measures to ensure European plastic waste is recycled domestically, clearer and enforceable recycled-content mandates in both the UK and EU, and faster implementation of harmonised end-of-waste rules for chemically recycled plastics.<\/p>\n

The announcement comes amid wider concerns across the European recycling industry about falling recycled polymer prices, subdued demand and rising imports of cheaper virgin resin.<\/p>\n

A recent report from Ecosurety and RECOUP found that current operational capacity covers just 23% of the infrastructure needed<\/a> to recycle all plastic packaging placed on the UK market, with more than 200,000 tonnes of UK plastic reprocessing capacity lost since 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Viridor said the move reflects \u201csignificant pressure\u201d facing plastics recycling markets across Europe, where demand for recycled polymers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-590931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}