Government steps in over £100m recycling plant

The government is set to decide whether a proposed new recycling plant - capable of producing a component of sustainable aviation fuel - can go ahead.

The £100m plant planned by Environmental Power International and Claude Fenton Holdings for Theale Quarry, near Reading, aims to use a process called pyrolysis which they say deals with waste with no burning or combustion and therefore no emissions.

The Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government has called the application in, taking the decision out of the hands of West Berkshire Council. No reason has been given.

The developers said it would "support the decarbonisation of the aviation sector".

Pyrolysis is the chemical decomposition of organic material, with heat in the absence of oxygen.

The developers said the proposed facility would turn non-recyclable waste into usable products, including bio-naphtha for use in sustainable aviation fuel, hydrogen and solid carbon.

It would be among the first full -scale commercial operations of its type in the country, employing 36 people.

Sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) are synthetic alternatives to fossil fuels, made from renewable sources.

The planning application, submitted in April 2024, is for two large single-storey industrial buildings, with two two-storey buildings.

Environmental Power International and Claude Fenton Holdings said the facility would reduce the environmental impacts associated with landfilling and incineration of waste, as well as reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

"The process also has the capacity to achieve highly significant levels of carbon capture with the whole process calculated to be overall carbon negative.

It said it would "play an important part" in meeting the council's climate change targets, as well as supporting the UK's aims to be carbon net zero by 2050.

Vicky Poole, portfolio holder for transformation and corporate programme on the Liberal Democrat-controlled council, said: "No one thinks of waste treatment as sexy or fun, but when it comes to carbon removal I am really rather proud there is a site being considered here in West Berkshire."

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