Durham recycling firm close to clinching deal

Feb 15 2010 by Karen Dent, The Journal

He is confident the first plant will be open in months and the company is negotiating with supermarkets to draw up contracts to take their waste and supply them with electricity.

Mr Atkinson has just returned from a UK Trade & Investment trip, where he met the Governor of Arizona and senior Hawaiian officials.

He said: “We had a private dinner with the Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and she asked us to go back out and talk about this technology.

“There has also been interest from Hawaii, where they import the majority of the diesel to drive their generators – the majority of Hawaii is powered by generators.

“We have very, very close contacts with Europe, especially Germany – and they are five years ahead of us.

“They have given me carte blanche to open up areas such as America.”

Each plant will be around 3,000sq ft and if the biodiesel is used to produce electricity, it will be capable of making 2.4 megawatts of power.

Plastec, which was set up in 1997, specialises in industrial recycling. Mr Atkinson previously owned Envirotyre, which he sold five years ago.

He said: “I was born and bred in the North East. To bring something like this to the North East is something I really, really want to do. That is the main driver.”

Plasrec worked with low carbon business development organisation Renew, both in the UK and overseas, to bring the technology to market.

Renew project director John Barton said: “Plasrec might be starting off with small scale facilities, but the initial feedback from potential customers is that their services could be in very high demand before very long.”