A Cleaner Future

Joseph Doherty, managing director of Re-Gen Waste, will be at the heart of the journey to a circular economy. Here he talks to Emma Deighan about the past, present and future of the recycling industry.

Re-Gen waste was set up in 2004 to recycle and make use of NI’s mixed recyclable waste.

The Newry-based family firm, run by the three Doherty brothers, came about from a mutual love for engineering and problem solving, Joseph says.

“We come from a construction background, a family-run firm which belonged to my father and uncle. Our strength was always materials handling equipment and engineering and we talked for a number of years about setting up Re-Gen.

“We took what we knew and used a bit of common sense and came into what was then a very immature industry. And the best thing about that is it made it a very forgiving industry.”

The brothers built a facility in Newry, “begging and borrowing” to put them in the best position possible to win council contracts.

“And that was hard,” Joseph admits. “We didn’t have any experience or track record but we were the only show in town and Newry Council were happy to use us.”

And so, Newry became a reference which would help the brothers secure work with other councils, which today includes names in the South, England and Scotland as well as NI.

Re-Gen processes almost 190,000 tonnes of plastic waste, 40,000 of which comes from NI, 40,000 from ROI and the remainder from GB.

More recently it won a major contract to take over waste processing from a plant in north-east England, which shut down. That acquisition of waste saw the business “reach tonnages we’ve never had before,” says Joseph.

And as a result it has bumped up its workforce to 293, from its former 250, proving that the journey to a circular economy can mean big business and job creation.

“It’s a really exciting place to be in,” Joseph continues. “There’s a lot coming down the tracks for the industry including the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).”

DRS is a subject Re-Gen feels passionate about. The scheme is an attempt to increase the rate of recycling of single use drinks containers.

“Uncertainty remains around who is going to pay for the DRS scheme and how much it will ultimately cost consumers and ratepayers,” Joseph says.

“In April this year, analysis from the Institute of Economic Affairs predicted that the DRS scheme will cost around £1 billion to set up and £814 million annually – a massive cost with negligible value for money.

“It will remove 20% of recyclables out of the bin we take from Councils and that will change the status quo for us and we will need to fill that gap and start looking at other things that need recycled.”

Joseph is in a prime position to play a role in policies that will be made in the drive to a circular economy.

He is now a committee member of the Advisory Committee on Packaging (ACP), an expert Government committee that advises DEFRA, bringing together the expertise and experience of individuals with a specific interest in packaging and packaging waste.

ACP members are drawn from the various parts of the packaging supply chain, including businesses which have legal obligations under the Packaging Waste Regulations as well as others who are involved in the management of packaging waste – local authorities, compliance schemes and waste management companies.

“That committee will be front and centre in policy change and it’s a big thing for us and raises our profile. It means we can feed into shaping our industry.”

Helping support Government initiatives, ReGen is expanding its offering thanks to a recent £20m investment in R&D.

It follows the announcement of plans to build a £22 million self-funded ‘circular economy resource park’ in Newry this year and Re-Gen Waste committed a further £20m in the local manufacture of two new products for paper and glass remelt.

Derived from local household waste, the advanced paper product is currently undergoing R&D testing, in association with Queen’s University Belfast. Both manufactured goods should be ready to bring to market in 2023 and will drive improvements in local Circular Product use.

“In the last ten years SMEs in the NI Waste Sector have been innovating and developing processes and plants to move Northern Ireland towards the circular economy.

“This can’t happen overnight, but Northern Ireland is hitting its targets to become a zerowaste society. In 2019/20, Northern Ireland achieved a Household Waste Recycling and Composting Rate of 51.9%. This is a dramatic step forward in our recycling rate, which continues to grow,” Joseph says.

“The volume of household waste landfilled has decreased by 352,837 tonnes, down from 561,173 tonnes in 2009/10 to 208,336 tonnes in 2019/20 and is continuing to fall rapidly year on year. According to DAERA’s Compositional Study 2017, 55% of the black bin (residual waste) is recyclable material, which we will also extract for use in manufacturing these new products.

“We are positioning our business to meet new policies and we are pushing hard to innovate and develop manufacturing facilities that close the recycling loop, create jobs at home and boost the NI economy.”

When asked what he believes the next visible move in recycling will be, he continues: “The next big step is for the council to reduce the size of our black bins and reduce what they collect, either by reducing the size of bins or collection frequency.

“I think we’ll start to see a three-week collection if the policies start working.”

And he anticipates a return to the days of bottle collection, when milkmen returned to doorsteps for empties.

“The target now for householders is to be able to recycle as much as possible and when we look back, we can see how that change happens.

“In 2004 only 400 bins in Newry were being recycled out of 36,000 households. In time that went to 11,000 and then every household.

“When we started, our timing couldn’t have been better.”

And now the recycling boss will be focusing on accommodating any growth that may be in the sector through recruitment via its Re-Gen Academy.

“The industry has had a lot of coverage with shows including David Attenborough’s Blue Planet encouraging people to get involved in the business. It’s exciting and if you work in waste you won’t leave it. It’s constantly changing and the sand is always moving under your feet.

“That dynamic creates drive and opportunity.”

“We are positioning our business to meet new policies and we are pushing hard to innovate and develop manufacturing facilities that close the recycling loop, create jobs at home and boost the NI economy.”

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