Clean Planet Energy have today announced a new joint venture with private equity firm Crossroads Real Estate, to fund Clean Planet Energy’s flagship ecoPlant currently under construction in Teesside, Northeast England. This will be the first of 10 new ecoPlants that Crossroads Real Estate and Clean Planet Energy are jointly seeking to build and operate across the UK.
The new joint venture, aiming to tackle the plastic waste crisis, could lead to over £400m of new UK investment deployed for the future construction of these facilities. Sites in Lincolnshire, Gloucestershire, Lancashire and South Wales have been identified to potentially lead the ten-site rollout, with further locations and announcements to be made in the months ahead.
A Clean Planet ecoPlant is a green, advanced recycling facility intended to process non-recyclable and hard-to-recycle waste plastics that would otherwise be sent to landfill. Each ecoPlant is designed to accept 20,000 tonnes of plastics each year and convert this waste into (a) ultra-low sulphur fuels to replace fossil-fuels in the transport and heavy-machinery sectors, and (b) circular petrochemical feedstocks, including Naphtha, which can be used to make new plastic products without requiring refineries to use fossil-based feedstock. Clean Planet’s ultra-low-sulphur diesel can have a 75% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to the use of traditional diesel, and the joint venture could lead to over 200,000 tonnes of hard-to-recycle waste plastics being repurposed into the circular supply-chain each year.
The news comes as COP27 is underway where world leaders seek solutions to reduce global GHG emissions and plastic pollution. Data from 2021 reports that the UK still generates in excess of 2 million tonnes of plastic waste each year, with well over 60% of this unable to be recycled; in November 2022 the UK government’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee published a report focusing on accelerating the reduction of plastic waste, with advanced recycling idenfitied as a key policy recommendation. By developing new ecoPlants throughout the UK, Clean Planet Energy and Crossroads Real Estate are opening a route for traditionally non-recyclable plastic waste to be repurposed into sustainable and circular products; thereby cutting plastic pollution, reducing waste entering UK landfills, and also lowering greenhouse gas emissions if used as low-carbon fuel replacements.
David Gillerman, Founding Partner & CEO of Crossroads Real Estate said
“At Crossroads, we are committed to green opportunities and impact investing as demonstrated already through our sustainable hotels strategy. We look forward to partnering with Clean Planet Energy to roll out ecoPlants across the UK including the flagship ecoPlant already under construction in Teesside. The negative impact of plastic waste on our environment, plus the challenges we face from excess carbon emissions, made the joint venture with Clean Planet Energy a very compelling opportunity. With this investment we have the ability to make a significant environmental and social impact across the UK.” - David Gillerman, Founding Partner & CEO of Crossroads Real Estate
Bertie Stephens, Group CEO of Clean Planet Energy commented on the extension of their vision this joint venture enables
“Clean Planet Energy’s mission is to remove over 1 million tonnes of non-recyclable plastic waste from our environment, every year. This exciting partnership gives us the capacity to make a significant dent to this target. Having Crossroads Real Estate join us, not just on the development of potentially 10 new UK ecoPlant projects, but also on the construction of the current Teesside ecoPlant, means in Crossroads we have a partner, who like us is focussed on making a sustainable difference with its investments, delivering on a vision of a greener United Kingdom and beyond. We’re now reaching out to local councils and private partners across the UK who could benefit from a reduction in plastic waste entering their landfill.” - Bertie Stephens, Group CEO of Clean Planet Energy
Earlier this year Clean Planet Energy announced a 10-year agreement with global energy company, bp plc, to offtake its circular products from its ecoPlants into the market. Each new ecoPlant will be able to process hard-to-recycle plastics in the UK; at their peak the facilities should create over 750 direct new jobs, and potentially thousands of indirect jobs when ecoPlants move from development into the construction and operation phase.
- - -
The Crossroads European Real Estate Funds have invested in various real estate asset classes throughout Europe such as hotels, residential, light industrial, retail and co-working.
Since inception in 2015, Crossroads has generated an exposure in excess of €1.3 billion in European real assets on behalf of its various investors
Crossroads have an extensive background in growing multi-jurisdictional platforms across various asset classes and capital structures, and unlocking value from complex situations providing both downside protection and a visible upside
Crossroads' key target markets are Germany, UK, The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Spain with potential target markets including Central and Southern Europe and the Nordics.
Clean Planet Energy (CPE) is a cleantech, renewable and alternative energy company, converting hard-to-recycle waste plastics into naphtha, a petrochemical feedstock, that can be used in plastic production to support a circular supply chain and into ultra-low-sulphur diesel.
CPE’s mission is to remove over 1 million tonnes of hard-to-recycle plastic waste from our environment every year. It will achieve this mission by seeking to continuously devise and implement green technologies and processes (such as the Clean Planet ecoPlant) that prevent plastic waste from entering earth’s environment and oceans, while also reducing the world’s demand for non-circular products.
Clean Planet ecoPlants aim to divert hard-to-recycle waste plastics away from the world’s landfills, incinerators, and oceans — a major environmental win. Clean Planet Energy have operations in UK, USA, France and South-East Asia.
A selection of mentions in the press (not exhaustive):