Recycling company Re-Gen has started work on its £30 million circular economy resource park in Newry which will involve 250 people in the construction of the new manufacturing and industrial units.
The eight-acre site in the Invest NI Carnbane Business Park will accommodate a number of operations including the manufacture of solid recovered fuel (SRF), making products from dry recyclables, a garage, and engineering workshop.
A research and development unit will be located as well as a four-storey office block and new headquarters for the Re-Gen Group comprising Re-Gen Waste, Re-Gen Robotics and Connex Offsite.
Joseph Doherty, Managing Director at Re-Gen, said: “This is an exciting development for the Re-Gen Group. We consulted widely on our plans to allow the community to have their say and our design team has taken their comments on board in developing the proposals for the site. This has been a very constructive process.
“Employing special mechanical manufacturing processes, we will be producing SRF as a fossil fuel replacement on the site. We are progressing R&D trials and we will also develop products from dry recyclable material such as paper, plastic and glass on the site.”
Materials placed by householders in their blue, green and black bins are valuable resources to Re-Gen and the company has become industry leaders in developing the market for aluminium, glass, paper, cardboard, plastics and steel.
“We have a dedicated business development team working with Councils across Great Britain and Ireland to process their recycling materials,” added Mr Doherty.
“Recycling resources are important and we are committed to developing the circular economy of paper, card, plastic and glass. We will continue to work with manufacturers and outlets in Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and Great Britain. Our focus is on innovation and developing manufacturing facilities that close the recycling loop, create jobs at home and ultimately boost the Northern Ireland economy.
“We take environmental quality standards very seriously and work closely with the Northern Ireland Environment Agency in order to operate our materials recovery facility.”
The project will secure the company’s 300 jobs in Newry and County Armagh.