PLANS were revealed last night to build a revolutionary £100m waste conversion plant that could create hundreds of jobs in the region’s chemical processing and construction sectors.
Four sites beside the River Tees are being considered as locations for the UK’s first facility to convert industrial and domestic waste into chemicals for the processing industry.
Solvert Ltd expects to employ 80 people at the plant, but create hundreds more jobs during the construction phase, which is due to start in 2013 before the facility is up and running two years later.
Kris Wadrop, chief executive of Solvert, based at the Wilton Centre, Redcar, believes the new plant was being built “in the right location, at the right time”.
He added: “As we start to recover from recession, this will give us a major project to strengthen the backbone of the North-East economy.
“If you are going to build a high-hazard chemical site in the UK, why would you build it anywhere other than here? We have the infrastructure, expertise, experience and customers on our doorstep.”
Having the plant will help reduce the volume of raw materials imported from Europe and the US and make the region’s chemical businesses more environmentally friendly.
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