Plastic recycling centre recommended for approval

A recycling plant in Nottinghamshire has been recommended for approval despite more than 1,200 residents opposing the plans.

Envale UK has submitted its application for a new plastic chemical recycling facility, with an energy recovery facility, on an old recycling site in Worksop.

The operator of the site off Shireoaks Road was subject to environmental enforcement action in 2013 requiring the removal of waste.

Nottinghamshire County Council's planning officers have recommended the proposal for approval, with a meeting set to take place on 3 November.

The authority said shortly after the notice was served on the operator, NRL, a series of fires occurred which destroyed buildings and machinery, before the company collapsed into administration in 2014.

While the new plans have avoided objections from most of the statutory consultees, Bassetlaw District Council objected at a planning committee in 2024.

Rhodesia Parish Council has also objected, while a petition against the plans has been signed by more than 1,200 residents.

Envale said the scheme has been "carefully considered", adding the facility would stop more than 24,000 tonnes of non-recyclable residual waste from going to landfill each year and generate up to 10 megawatts of heat and 2.5 megawatts of electricity, which it said was enough to power more than 650 homes every year.

The plant would break down plastics via a method called pyrolysis.

Under the process, waste plastic will be delivered into a heated sealed chamber, where it would be heated to around 500C in the absence of oxygen, causing the plastic polymer to "crack" into smaller molecules until it becomes liquid and gas hydrocarbons, similar to those used to make plastics in the first place.

The Shireoaks and Rhodesia Against Plastic Pyrolysis (SRAPP) established the petition when the plans first surfaced.

It is understood the group has booked a coach so that its members can attend the planning committee meeting, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Jo White, Bassetlaw's Labour MP, has objected due to the proximity of the proposed site to newly developed residential and leisure areas.

Other concerns include possible run-off into the Chesterfield Canal and vehicle movements in and out of the facility.

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