World leading plastics processing facility planned for Binn Eco Park

Project Beacon
  • Binn Group to play key role in global “first”
  • £3.4 million facility to tackle environmental bugbear
  • State-of-the-art plant to be at centre of Scotland’s plastic processing

Binn Group is pleased and proud to be at the forefront of the battle against plastic with the announcement of plans for the world’s first industrial scale plastics recycling centre at Binn Eco Park.

Proposals for the £3.4 million Project Beacon facility were announced by Zero Waste Scotland which has pledged £1.7 million to the scheme.

This sum will be matched jointly by Project Beacon partners, a group of cutting-edge recycling firms:

The game-changing system being developed uses new state-of-the-art separation technology to support mechanical recycling, fused with a chemical feedstock recycling process.

This includes a patented process based on thermal cracking, which recycles end-of-life plastic waste that typically cannot be recycled using mechanical methods – for example, mixed, laminated, black, film and even contaminated plastic waste, as well as hard plastics.

This new process produces a range of chemical constituents that can be used to create new virgin plastics or other chemical products.

Binn Group commercial director Jim Brown said the new centre would be constructed and operated at the ever-evolving Binn Eco Park near Glenfarg in Perthshire with Binn Group as supply chain partners.

“Binn Group is delighted to support Project Beacon and looks forward to construction of the A-PRF (Advanced Plastics Recycling Facility) at our Binn Eco Park site.

“While plastic is an extremely useful material and most of our lives have benefited from it in some way,” he said, “it’s clear that we have a challenge with end of life plastic with only 28% of waste plastic in Scotland currently being recycled (global figure 14%).

“The recycling and re-manufacturing facility that will be built on our site this year will go a long way to address this challenge and deliver real circular economy benefits for Scotland in line with the Scottish Government’s ambitions.”

Jim Brown
Jim Brown, Binn Group Commercial Director being interviewed by Hayley Millar for Good Morning Scotland, BBC Radio Scotland

Announcing the world leading scheme, Zero Waste Scotland Chief Executive Iain Gulland said: “I am delighted not only that our financial support is helping create a potentially world-leading recycling facility here in Scotland, but that Zero Waste Scotland’s expertise has been instrumental in bringing it about. Project Beacon has the potential to transform plastics recycling in Scotland and beyond and at a time when people are increasingly concerned about the impact of plastics dumped in our environment. I’m excited to watch this circular economy business grow and develop.”

Project Beacon will now drive ahead to hopefully create the first demonstration facility at Binn Eco Park by the end of the year.

Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Roseanna Cunningham, visited the site to view progress.

She said:

“Initiatives like Project Beacon have the potential to be ground-breaking as they are finding new uses and economic potential for hard-to-recycle plastics which could make a significant contribution to reducing waste and increasing recycling.”

John Ferguson, Director, Pi Polymers said:

“Project Beacon is an exciting opportunity to demonstrate how technology and system innovation can form part of the complex range of solutions needed to address this global plastics crisis. This is an issue that affects us all and it is encouraging that these two small companies working together with Zero Waste Scotland have been able to demonstrate the potential of British innovation.”

“You can help solve the problem in the oceans by making waste plastic valuable on land,” said Adrian Griffiths, Chief Executive Officer of Recycling Technologies.

“As part of Project Beacon, Recycling Technologies is delighted to be installing its first commercial RT7000 chemical recycling machine at Binn Eco Park to recycle plastic back to oil. By combining existing and innovative mechanical and chemical recycling technologies, Project Beacon boosts the local economy and enables household and large rigid plastics to be recycled instead of incinerated.”

*Featured image – Ian Gulland CEO of Zero Waste Scotland and Roseanna Cunningham MSP Environment Minister at Binn EcoPark. Photo credit to – https://www.zerowastescotland.org.uk*

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