Another 52 jobs are to be created at the Orthios Eco Park, at Holyhead, Anglesey, following the green technology company’s success in securing funding for new recycling equipment from the UK Government-backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

The support enables the purchase of equipment which will be used to process plastics previously judged non-recyclable for reclamation of its most useful ingredients in Orthios’s ground-breaking Plastics-2-Oil facility.

Once the equipment is installed, it will create 52 new full-time jobs on top of the 56 already on the former aluminium smelting site, where plastics to oil (P-2-O) production is due to start  soon – transforming plastics traditionally sent to landfill into a synthetic oil and useful by-products, so reducing the need to burn climate change -accelerating fossil fuels.

Orthios CEO Sean McCormick says:

“Establishing our new plastics recycling centre is a key part of our overall plan to treat waste as a valuable resource with a huge part to play in tackling climate change and building a sustainable, prosperous, carbon-neutral economy. Via the centre, Orthios will tease out first those plastics which can be readily repurposed and send the remainder to our P-2-0 facility to extract fuel and other ingredients valuable to industry, including ours.”

He added:

“The CIBLS money is the first we have sought, or received, from the public purse and we are delighted that instead of merely supporting existing jobs, as such loans are doing elsewhere, we will be using ours to create new employment opportunities and a greener future.”

Orthios’s application for CIBLS funding has been supported by Anglesey’s Westminster MP Virginia Crosbie, who described the company as “fantastic” and “ingenious” during a House of Commons debate on the scheme’s introduction.

Commenting this week on the success of the application and the jobs it will create, Ms Crosbie said: “I am delighted to hear the news that Orthios will be receiving CIBLS funding and that it will be put to such good use.  This project will not only contribute to the UK Government’s net-zero carbon targets but, by bringing new jobs to Anglesey, it also supports its levelling up agenda.  I am looking forward to visiting the new plant when it goes live.”

The company has now applied for a second CBLS loan for equipment to process biomass from the recycling centre into a clean biogas. A decision on the new application is expected by Spring 2021 and, if approved, will create 18 more jobs.