Dive Brief:
- French waste management company Suez has purchased a 30% stake in New Jersey-based TerraCycle's European operations, which has been previously valued at approximately $30 million, as reported by the Telegraph.
- This deal will allow Suez to expand recycling options for challenging materials in Belgium, Finland, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Sweden.
- TerraCycle is already active in 20 countries and this will give it the opportunity to further develop a presence in the European market.
Dive Insight:
Under the proposed Circular Economy Package, which was adopted by the European Commission last year, the goal is to recycle 75% of packaging waste by 2030. As has been seen in countries such as England, recycling contamination remains an issue and expanding options for diverting these common but challenging materials will be an important step toward reaching this goal.
Since it started in 2002, TerraCycle has grown to nearly 60 million collectors through a range of programs that cover about 100 hard-to-recycle materials. The company has taken on pens, coffee pods, cigarette butts, adhesive containers and more by finding ways to convert them into new products. Some of these programs are sponsored by companies or municipalities and TerraCycle's "zero waste" mail-in boxes are also available through Staples.
The company has been working in the U.K. since 2009, though the new partnership with Suez will open up new access to recycling technology and opportunities. The French giant employs more than 82,000 employees across five continents and reported nearly $16.9 billion in revenues last year.
