News: Sterecycle secures £5m investment

Clean technology company, Sterecycle has secured £5.1m of investment to expand the waste processing capacity at its pioneering Rotherham plant.

The funding package includes a £1.25m investment from the Finance Yorkshire Equity Fund. A second new investor, German businessman Lars Windhorst, and existing investors including Aston Hill Financial from Canada contributed the
remaining £3.85 million.

The finance will enable the company to expand its waste processing capacity at the Templeborough plant from 100,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) to 175,000 tpa, and create a further 17 full time jobs.

The company uses a patented steam processing method called autoclaving to "pressure cook" household and commercial black-bag waste. The Rotherham plant is the world's first commercial scale autoclave waste treatment facility and recovers 65 percent of the waste in the form of recyclables and a biomass rich soil like substance called "Sterefibre."

Sterefibre is approved as a soil improver for non-agricultural applications and is being used to grow biofuel crops. It can also be used to generate clean power in biomass-fuelled CHP (combined heat and power) plants and for biogas production in anaerobic digestion plants.

The Rotherham site has been operational since August 2008 and employs 41 local people. It is as a blueprint for a future roll out of waste processing sites around the country.

Tom Shields, CEO of Sterecycle said: "We're very pleased to have two new backers on board and for the ongoing support of our existing investors. This funding means we'll be able to install the first of our new waste-processing autoclaves and take the capacity of the plant up to 175,000 tonnes of waste per annum. This added capacity will take us to around break-even for the group as a whole and increase landfill diversion.

"Following that we'll focus on securing finance for a second new autoclave and finishing the expansion works at Rotherham. We hope to do this in early 2013 - we'll then be able to process more than 200,000 tonnes of waste per annum.

"Our contracts with five of the local authorities in the South Yorkshire region together with commercial and trade waste sources will supply us with enough waste to fill this capacity.

"We're planning for a public listing next year so that we can raise additional funds to grow the business further and develop more sites across the UK."

Ash Chopra, who led the investment on behalf of the Finance Yorkshire Equity Fund, added: "The desire to find alternatives to simply sending waste to landfill is high on the political and environmental agendas. Land-filling waste is not a viable long-term option with regulatory driven penalties pushing the cost of landfill up. The technology in use at the company provides a viable "greener" alternative to landfill.

"We are delighted with this investment as a further 17 full time jobs will be created and the company has raised an additional £3.85m as other investors followed our lead."

Advising the Finance Yorkshire Equity Fund on the deal were Debbie Jackson and Joy Irving from Walker Morris, Leeds.

Sterecycle website
Finance Yorkshire website

Images: Finance Yorkshire