NEWRY group Re-Gen has announced plans to invest £20 million in developing new waste-derived paper and glass products, creating up to 120 new jobs.
It comes on top of plans to develop a £22m self-funded ‘circular economy resource park’ at the Invest NI Carnbane Business Park this year, which the waste firm said will create 130 jobs.
The company already employs around 250 people in the area around its core business of processing mixed dry recyclable and residual waste sourced from local authorities.
Re-Gen’s latest venture includes a new absorbent paper product derived from local household waste.
It’s currently undergoing R&D testing in association with Queen’s University.
Re-Gen said both the paper and glass products should be ready to bring to market in 2023.
The proposed circular economy park will include manufacturing facilities for producing solid recovered fuel (SRF) from waste.
Managing director Joseph Doherty said the innovation within the north’s waste sector is playing a key role in the move toward a zero waste society.
“In 2019/20, Northern Ireland achieved a household waste recycling and composting rate of 51.9 per cent,” he said.
“This is a dramatic step forward in our recycling rate, which continues to grow.”
The volume of household waste landfilled here has dropped from around 560,000 tonnes in 2009/10 to 350,000 tonnes last year.
But research by Stormont has found that just over half of black bin waste is recyclable.
Mr Murphy said Re-Gen’s approach involves extracting such material for use in its manufacturing process to develop the new products.
He said new policies and legislation will dramatically change the nature and volume of waste from 2023.
“We are positioning our business to meet these new policies and are proud that the 23.1 per cent increase in our recycling rate, has been achieved through private investment by SMEs in the waste sector, to extract and recover recyclable and compostable materials.
“We are pushing hard to innovate and develop manufacturing facilities that close the recycling loop, create jobs at home and boost the NI economy.”
