A FIRM which has started work on a plastic recycling facility in the North-East has announced a partnership with another company which will create products from the waste as part of plans for a "circular economy" for plastic.

Work on the Mura Technology plant in Teesside started earlier this year and is hoped will be operational by 2022.

The company has announced a partnership with Dow, which will receive a supply of recycled feedstocks made from plastics waste, which it will use to develop new, virgin-grade plastic for things like food packaging and other packaging products

The collaboration will support the rapid scaling of Mura’s new Hydrothermal Plastic Recycling Solution – known by the trademark HydroPRS – which is plans to roll out globally to create a circular plastics economy.

The partnership combines Dow’s materials science capabilities, global scale and financial resources with Mura’s leading technology, to produce the circular feedstocks which are then converted into the recycled plastics that consumers and global brands are increasingly seeking.

Carsten Larsen, from Dow Packaging and Speciality Plastics said: “We are delighted to offer our investment and expertise to support the development of this truly game-changing recycling process.

"We are committed to enacting real change to stop plastic going to waste and accelerate moves towards a more circular economy. We know achieving this goal will take major innovation and investment and we can’t do it alone.

"That’s why our partnership with Mura is so exciting and why we believe it will form a key pillar of our recycling strategy going forward.”

Mura says its technology can recycle all forms of plastic, including multi-layer, flexible plastics used in packaging, which are currently harder to recycle and often incinerated or sent to landfill, returning them to chemicals and oils for use in new, virgin-equivalent plastic products.

The plastics produced using these recycled products are expected to be suitable for use in food- contact packaging, unlike most conventional recycling processes.

And there is no anticipated limit to the number of times it can be recycled, meaning it has the potential to significantly reduce plastics being used once and make the raw ingredients for a circular plastics economy.

The plant at Wilton International in Teesside is the first of its kind and will have the capacity to recycle 20,000 tonnes of plastic per year.

Dr Steve Mahon, chief executive of Mura Technology, said: “Plastic pollution is a global challenge and our goal is to meet it head on by recapturing millions of tonnes of plastic waste every year and put them to work again as a valuable resource for the world’s biggest brands.

“We’re changing the way the world thinks about plastics – not as something to throw away, but as a product that can be used over and over again, and sustainably, without damaging our natural environment. Our partnership with Dow will help make this a reality for global brands and deliver a circular plastics economy globally within the next decade.”