Boomerang Plastics recycling plant closes its doors

Mike Jordan, Managing Director of plastics ancillary business Summit Systems and owner of Boomerang Plastics said, “We are of course disappointed with the outcome, but, we have learnt some valuable lessons and have walked away ensuring all our creditors were paid. We will now be focusing on driving forward our successful new recycling systems business ‘Summit Recycling Systems’ which will design and build MRF and PRF sorting plants.”
 
Boomerang Plastics started up in 2011 and expanded rapidly thanks to securing a contract to process used Muller yogurt pots. The set-up consisted of a unique processing line developed to separate the unusual mixture of part-clean plastic pots, yogurt, printed wrappers, card and foil.
 
Warwick University was involved in the initial line design that tackled the concerns with multiple materials and colors. A line was then designed that could harness cutting edge density separation technology, cold washing, hot washing, chemical separation and color picking. Specialist software was used to map out the design intricacies of the plant.
 
Once the plant became operational it was up to speed processing 150-200 tonnes of waste per week, at a quality that enabled circulation back into the packaging chain.
 
However, the recycler was plagued by unfortunate circumstances, which included an arson attack in 2014 that led to a relocation where electricity prices and insurance rocketed. The plummeting oil price and a lack of incentive to recycle in the UK didn’t help, and at the end of 2015 Mike Jordan made the decision to call it a day.
 
“We were buffered by our core ancillary business doing so well thanks in part to a new partnership with Tria granulators leading to our biggest order ever. It was with a heavy heart we closed the door but I now have the freedom to focus on making our service even better for our customers. The experience has helped our other businesses by providing insight and a very detailed understanding of the recycling chain,” added Jordan.