Innovate Recycle Ltd are a clean growth, circular economy company and will be the first in the UK to recycle and recapture reusable resources from end-of-life carpets and associated products.

 

Supported by the South East Midlands LEP with the UK Government’s Getting Building Fund and private sector and individual investors, Innovate Recycle are investing in a new facility at Lodge Way in Northampton. The company will create jobs for local people, connections with the local supply chain and are forecasting strong, scale-up growth as Innovate Recycle plays its part in ensuring that valuable recycled polypropylene is not lost to landfill or waste to energy and instead recaptured for reuse in industries such as consumer products, automotive, plastics extrusion and a wide range of other applications.  

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Innovate Recycle Chief Executive, Joseph Eccleston explains:

“With new UK legislation on recycled product and packaging content, such as the Plastic Packaging Tax coming into force, we are seeing a significant rise in the demand for recycled polypropylene (rPP). Innovate Recycle will respond to that demand and supply an increasing amount of rPP to the market. We have secured our first premises and will commence delivery from this new operating location in early autumn, allowing us to take end of life carpet and make our first rPP sales in 2022”.

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Innovate Recycle Chair, Bob Woods further comments: 
“We are delighted to be in Northampton and to commence delivery of this exciting project, and the installation of our first resource recapture process line. Building a more circular economy, first through better product design, and then by not throwing away and wasting valuable resources, will be central to the UK’s industrial transformation in the next few decades. Innovate Recycle intends to play a prominent part within that and ensure that an increasing amount of the around five hundred thousand tonnes of waste carpet created per annum is deconstructed and reutilised within the UK industrial supply chain”. 

Innovate Recycle Investment Director, Edmund Bacon adds:
“The Innovate Recycle, circular economy, polypropylene resource recapturing process has attracted strong investor interest and support and we’re delighted that the project has commenced installation ready for first commercial delivery later in 2022. The amount of reusable polypropylene lost through the placing of waste carpet into landfill, or through incineration is shocking. While the project makes strong business sense it also firmly ticks a green, clean growth outcome than many of our investors are looking for”.
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Judith Barker, Director of Programmes and Governance at SEMLEP said:
“SEMLEP are pleased to support this project, with a contribution of £2.35m, as one of 11 schemes funded by the Getting Building Fund, announced in 2020.  SEMLEP supports the sustainable economic growth of Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes and we are particularly keen to grow the economy through innovation in sustainable solutions for waste.  We are looking forward to seeing the new jobs and apprenticeships on site later this year”.

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Councillor Jonathan Nunn, Leader of West Northamptonshire Council, comments:
“As well as the welcome economic investment that this exciting new venture brings to our area, it makes a great contribution to our bold sustainability ambitions, as set out in our newly launched sustainability strategy, by generating and keeping money within the local economy.

And from an environmental perspective, deconstructing end of life waste carpet and re-using it in a wide range of industry applications, will be make great use of material that might otherwise just go to landfill.  These days just burying waste that could be re-used positively is completely unacceptable”.

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Cllr Lizzy Bowen, West Northamptonshire Council Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Town Centre Regeneration and Growth, said: 
“Our area has a strong history of innovation, and we welcome ground breakers like Innovate Recycle. The environmental sector is key to our future, both in terms of tackling climate change and establishing sustainable economic growth and it’s incredibly exciting to have a company at the forefront of its industry choosing West Northamptonshire as its base of operations. We’ve pledged to pursue environmental, economic and social sustainability across our area, and that includes making West Northants net zero by 2045 – extremely stretching targets - so we’re delighted to have this valuable contribution to those important goals.