Plastic Energy selects FRP Advisory for administration
British recycler Plastic Energy has appointed administrators, due to cash flow challenges faced by the company. FRP Advisory will now explore the remaining options for the firm’s assets.
Just as Europe struggles to chart a course to a sustainable, carbon neutral economy, the continent’s plastics recycling industry is entering a period of economic turmoil. Demonstrating the limitations of leaving such a crucial transition to the private sector, industry body Plastics Recyclers Europe reported that the plastic recycling sector experienced its “sharpest decline” in 2024.
The Plastics Recycling Industry Figures 2024 report from that organisation also said that recycling facilities representing roughly 300 kilotonnes of annual capacity were forced to close during the year – the largest contraction ever recorded by the association. Looking at 2025, it seems likely things deteriorated further – with facility closures are estimated to have risen by around 50%, resulting in the loss of nearly one million tonnes of recycling capacity across Europe over the past three years.
As that trend looks set to continue in 2026, Plastic Energy has fallen into insolvency. Founded in 2011, the firm recycles end-of-life plastics into oil, intended to replace fossil oils in the production of new plastics. Its process heats plastics in the absence of oxygen to form hydrocarbon vapours, which are then condensed into a recycled oil, called TACOIL.
Headquartered at Carter Lane, London, the company employs 200 people across the UK, Singapore, Malaysia, Spain, France and remotely. The company opened a research and development lab in Loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park in November 2022.
Administrators have been appointed from FRP Advisory, after Plastic Energy faced insufficient liquidity available within the group to affect a turnaround plan. Joint-administrators Geoffrey Rowley and Patrick Donnan will continue to trade the group’s business whilst they seek to find a buyer and employees are being retained.
Rowley said, “Plastic Energy has developed market leading recycling processes since inception, but has suffered from a European market downturn and accordingly has been unable to evidence sustainable operations. Our goal is to sell the group’s primary assets, including the IP and patents held, the shares in group entities (including Plastic Energy S.L.U. holding the recycling plants) and the joint venture interests, to maximise returns for creditors.”
Plastic Energy SLU, the entity which owns and operates the two plastic recycling plants in Seville and Almeria, Spain, has not entered into any insolvency process. Those plants continue to operate as normal.
