His departure comes after the company was bought out of administration by German Investment firm Aurelius in December, after having made a loss of £12.5 million since 2012.
Having led the bottle recycler since its establishment as AWS Eco Plastics in 2000 and building the business into one of the continent’s largest producers of food grade rPET, Mr Short has become a recognised figure within the recycling industry.
He served as managing director of the business until August 2013, when he moved to the deputy chairman role to focus on its ‘long term strategy’ (see letsrecycle.com story). Mr Short was replaced at the helm by chief executive Chris Brown who remains in charge of the company, alongside Aurelius director Kimberley Whitaker.
Mr Short oversaw the running of ECO Plastics throughout its early years and through to the genesis of Continuum Recycling, the joint venture with soft drinks giant Coca Cola Enterprises. Coca Cola ended the Continuum Recycling partnership when ECO Plastics was placed into administration but has pledged to continue sourcing recycled plastic from the company.
A new separate company trading as Plastics ECO Ltd, and now renamed ECOPlastics Recycling Ltd, was set up by Aurelius and took over the operations of the Hemswell site after the takeover in December (see letsrecycle.com story).
Review
All of the original ECO Plastics staff were transferred over to the new entity as part of the deal, with the debt amassed by ECO Plastics – totalling more than £14 million – being kept by the old company ECO Plastics Ltd, which remains in administration and could be wound up.
ECOPlastics Recycling Ltd underwent a month long consultation to assess the future of the business, with the position of more than 40 staff from across its operations under review. Other senior figures including the former commercial director Duncan Oakes and technical director Simon Faulkner have also departed since Aurelius’ takeover (see letsrecycle.com story).
A spokesman for the company confirmed to letsrecycle.com that Mr Short has left the company, adding that the review of the business is ongoing.
Sector roles
Mr Short has held senior advisory roles within the sector after having been elected as chair of the Resource Association – a role from which he stepped down after just eight months in office in January this year. He still sits on Defra’s Advisory Committee for Packaging (ACP) as the plastics industry representative. The ACP advises government on packaging recycling, and it is not known whether his departure from ECO Plastics will impact on his membership of the committee.
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