UK Business Secretary visits MBA Polymers’ Worksop plant
MBA Polymers was delighted to welcome the UK’s Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, Dr Vince Cable, to our Worksop plant on 27th November 2014. The Business Secretary and his team were met by MBA CEO Nigel Hunton, who shared a presentation of our company’s story, before embarking on a tour around the plant.
During his visit, Dr Cable asked Nigel to describe MBA’s key strength. Nigel explained that our strength lies in separating plastic polymers from complex waste streams and giving them new life as materials for new products. And of course, we’re also helping to create a sustainable future for plastics.
MBA has spent 20 years developing its high tech processes to separate plastic waste, using a whole array of techniques, including separation by density, colour and electrostatic sorting. We process some 100,000 tonnes of feedstock globally each year, creating valuable raw materials for customers including Nespresso, Electrolux and HP. We continually invest in R&D and keep channelling our knowledge back into improving our processes and investigating how we can separate more types of plastic.
Dr Cable heard that the MBA Polymers Worksop plant is a real UK success story, on track to reach an annual processing capacity of 50,000 tonnes. We’re also helping our JV partner EMR to lead the world in recycling 99% of each end-of-life vehicle that comes through its doors, beating the EU’s 2015 target of 95%.
Nigel outlined the importance of working with customers to tailor the performance characteristics of our products to meet their exact needs, and highlighted an innovative materials collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover. Above all, he explained, receiving a steady stream of recyclable materials from EMR and our other JV partners is vital to ensuring continuity of supply for our customers.
The party toured the MBA Polymers plant, led by Plant Manager Richard Chambers, and got to see the key aspects of our operations first-hand, from the deliveries of automotive shredder residue (ASR) from EMR to how we check the quality of the final product, as explained by our Quality Manager, Peter Mackrell.
Commenting on his visit, Dr Cable said: “MBA Polymers is demonstrating how recycling can benefit both the economy and the environment. Whether it’s turning old cars into new cars and coffee machines or broken computers in to brand-new vacuum cleaners, it is transforming scrapheap rubbish in to the materials used in many household goods. A strong manufacturing sector lies at the heart of a sustainable economic recovery. The Government’s industrial strategy is giving business the confidence to invest – creating more high skilled, long term jobs in the UK.”
MBA Polymers Chief Executive, Nigel Hunton added: “We were very pleased that Dr Cable visited our facility. He was delighted to see the progress that we’re making on turning waste plastic into materials for new products – a tangible demonstration of the circular economy in action. We’re now working hard with customers to help them realise the commercial and environmental benefits of using recycled plastics in their products.”
Dr Cable’s MBA Polymers tour was part of a wider visit to technology businesses in Worksop and Lincoln, during which he announced £40m of funding for the industrial biotechnology sector.
For more information on MBA Polymers UK and our JV partnership with EMR, please visit our website.