UK chemical recycling pioneer Recycling Technologies has launched a second campaign to raise a minimum of £1.3m (€1.5m) with Crowdcube as it seeks to build and open its first commercial plant in Scotland.
This follows the company's debut Crowdcube funding round in February this year, which closed at £3.7m well ahead of its scheduled completion date.
The company has seen a growth spurt in recent months, thanks to stringent restrictions on waste exports to Asia, UK landfill taxes and the public awareness towards plastics waste.
Based in Swindon, south of England, RT opened its new headquarters and manufacturing facility in mid-November, with the capacity to manufacture 200 RT7000 recycling machines per year
Destined for markets in the UK and Europe, the patented recycling machine RT7000 converts plastics to Plaxx oil, which can be used as fuel to make new plastics.
In this process, the RT7000 heats up the plastic in the absence of oxygen to break the waste plastic down into Plaxx.
The process allows the recycling of plastics currently considered unrecyclable, such as plastic film, laminated food pouches and crisp packets and even black plastics.
RT said 30 Nov that its first round of fundraising allowed the company to open the new 25,000 square foot assembly facility in Swindon and gain planning permission for the first commercial machine to be installed at Binn Ecopark waste site in Perthshire, Scotland in 2019.
“We look forward to welcoming new investors from the Crowdcube community and want to thank all who have supported us so far. The company's approach is commercially attractive,” said Adrian Griffiths, CEO Recycling Technologies.
Waste companies in the UK, according to Griffiths, are paying around £100 (€112) per tonne for the disposal of plastic waste to landfill and incineration. With an RT7000, waste operators can turn this plastic waste liability into a valuable revenue stream from Plaxx, estimated to be valued today around £300 (€336) per tonne.
This puts the payback time for the machine under three years, Griffiths added.
RT aims to install capacity to recycle 10 million tonnes of plastic by 2027, producing 7 million tonnes of Plaxx annually to replace fossil oils. This target will more than triple Europe's current waste plastic recycling capacity.