Recycling pioneer Recycling Technologies has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing companies in a report by online equity investing platform SyndicateRoom.
The SyndicateRoom ranking of UK high growth businesses was carried out by Beauhurst, a research body for the UK's most ambitious startups, scale-ups and high-growth companies. The ranking is based on the increase in company valuation from 2015-2018.
According to the report, Recycling Technologies has grown in value by a multiple of 9.7 over the three-year period.
Based in Swindon, southwest England, RT 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.
The company has developed a patented recycling machine, the RT7000, which converts plastics to Plaxx oil, which can be used 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. The machines could be installed in waste recovery sites to avoid landfilling such plastic wastes.
RT opened a 25,000 square feet factory facility and HQ in Swindon in November and launched a new fund-raising campaign in December as it targets growth.
Interviewed in the report, Adrian Griffiths, CEO of Recycling Technologies, explained that the “lightbulb moment” that led to the company's launch was the realisation that only 10% of plastic packaging is being recycled mechanically.
“[This is] leaving 90% of this amazing material to be burned, buried or lost into the environment. We sat down and asked, ‘how hard can it be to do better?” he added.