By Caelia Quinault and Savannah Coombe.
Ten crews from the West Midlands Fire Service were reported to have attended a “severe” fire at the Biffa Waste Management recycling plant on Westgate in Aldridge, Walsall earlier this month.
The plastics industry is concerned that the subsequent closure of the site has led to a drop in demand, particularly for mixed bottle and packaging.
The decrease in demand is also reported to be due to the scheduled closure of the Viridor Avonmouth plant – which took HDPE, PP and PET.
The waste company announced the closure in November last year, citing “persistently and increasingly challenging market conditions” and “the absence of planned legislation to increase rates of plastic recycling in the UK”.
Some in the industry have said that the only thing propping up the single stream market is the plastics PRN, which currently stands at £70 per tonne.
See the full Letsrecycle.com plastics prices for January here.
Fire at Biffa site in Aldridge
On 4 January 2025, a fire was reported to have started in a recycling compactor at the Biffa site in Aldridge.
The next day, the fire was confirmed to be out with zero injuries reported.
A spokesperson from Biffa told Letsrecycle.com at the time: “We can confirm that the fire services have been called to attend an incident at the Biffa Aldridge processing site. The building has been fully evacuated and all colleagues accounted for with no injuries reported. We would like to thank the emergency services for their swift response.”
10 fire engines, 32 sets of breathing apparatus, four hose reel jets, two main jets, a hydraulic platform and a drone were deployed to extinguish the fire. The drone was used to identify hotspots for firefighters to target.
A spokesperson for the West Midlands Fire Service said: “This severe fire at the recycling plant was a complex incident, with a complex layout to manage. However, the incident is now under control.
“The cause of the fire is yet to be determined and investigations are underway.”
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