Port of Sunderland to host ‘UK’s greenest’ waste tire recycling plant

Wastefront AS Chief Executive Officer Vianney Valès spoke to ELN about the company’s plans to build the circular facility

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The Norwegian startup Wastefront AS is investing in the UK with the construction of what is described as the UK’s greenest waste tire recycling plant at the Port of Sunderland.

Just a few days after his appointment as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer, Vianney Valès spoke to ELN about the company’s plans for its first waste tire-to hydrocarbon plant in the port.

He said: “We are taking end-of-life tires and repurposing them in a way, in a chemical manner, into what we call recovered carbon black, which is one of the components of tires themselves, which shows the perfect circularity of that process.”

He added the process is also producing green liquid hydrocarbon that could end up in chemicals or in marine fuels.

Mr Valès, a former top executive in oil and gas companies such as Shell and Galp Energia, said the project, which is expected to start commercial operations in early 2024, will have enough capacity to process 73,000 tonnes of end-of-life tires every year.

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