Close-up of the fluidized bed reactor of the RT7000.

Slowing demand and economic conditions in Europe have sent Recycling Technologies Group plc and Recycling Technologies Ltd., a United Kingdom-based chemical recycling business, into administration and halted all operations.

The administration process is similar to bankruptcy in the U.S. Nick Holloway and Will Wright from Interpath Advisory were appointed joint administrators for the company with headquarters and a pilot plant in Swindon, England, and an additional site in Perthshire, Scotland.

The company was founded in 2011.

Recycling Technologies' approach is a modular one. It developed the RT7000, a machine that uses pyrolysis to break down long chains of polymers into shorter chains through the use of heat in the absence of oxygen. The RT7000 has been designed as a bolt-on unit that is integrated with existing mechanical recycling infrastructure. The unit offers a local solution for hard-to-recycle plastic waste otherwise destined for landfill or incineration, thus avoiding unnecessary transportation of plastic waste and associated carbon emissions. The company was backed by Zero Waste Scotland.

In recent months, the company had sought additional investment in order to complete its development phase, a quest which ultimately proved unsuccessful, and that has now led to its collapse into administration.

Recycling Technologies announced plans to go public in 2021, but these plans were later abandoned. In April 2022, the company’s founder and director, Adrian Griffiths, resigned. Gary Bullard remains listed as director on Companies House, along with Simon Dent and Ravish Jain.

Operations ceased immediately upon the appointment of the joint administrators. In a statement, they wrote: "Regrettably, the majority of the group’s 73 employees have been made redundant, with a small number retained to assist the joint administrators with the closing down of its sites."

Nick Holloway, managing director at Interpath Advisory and Joint Administrator, said: “Our immediate priority is to assist those members of staff who have been made redundant, providing them with the support and information they need to make claims to the Redundancy Payments Service. We will also be looking to realize the assets of the business and its intellectual property, and would encourage any interested parties to contact us as soon as possible.”

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