Suez Acquires 30% Stake in TerraCycle
TerraCycle Include USA Suez
Suez is to acquire 30% of TerraCycle’s recycling business in Northern and Western Europe in order to expand its range of collection programs.
The partnership brings together TerraCycle’s collections of ‘difficult’ material streams – such as flexible packaging, coffee capsules and cigarette butts – with Suez’s own experience in more traditional waste recovery.
Active in 20 countries, the acquisition will see Suez develop TerraCycle’s recycling programs in the UK, France, Belgium, the Nertherlands, Finland and Sweden.
TerraCycle partners with mass market companies, brands and councils to implement these programmes, with an estimated 60 million collectors working through the initiatives.
These programmes are either set by ‘sponsored’ volunteers, which are awarded points that are then converted into donations for the organisation of their choice, or paid for by companies.
Commenting on the partnership and acquisition, David Palmer-Jones, chief executive of Suez, said the UK remains a ‘key market’ for both companies.
He said: “Suez’s investment in TerraCycle allows us to harness the combined skills of both companies to deliver innovative, creative and scalable solutions which tackle problematic and emerging waste streams in the UK and across Europe. Suez’s investment in TerraCycle will benefit UK customers both today and in a post Brexit future.
“Using the knowledge of both companies, we can ensure that even the most complex and challenging waste streams are put to good use in a sustainable, long-term and economically viable way – whether its coffee pods, cigarette butts, laminated biscuit wrappers or the next, as yet unknown, generation of tricky-to-recycle products.”