Environment Minister Edwin Poots has visited a plastic waste recycling facility in Lurgan.

During a tour of Plaswire Limited Minister Poots met with Chief Executive Andrew Billingsley and senior management to discuss the importance of recycling to the local economy.

The plastic waste reprocessing facility processes other commercial plastics such as old aircraft interior furnishings. In keeping with circular economy principles, the waste plastics are shredded into small plastic pieces that can then be used as raw materials in the creation of new plastic products thus saving resources and reducing plastic ending up in landfill.

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Officials within the Department of Agriculture, Environment and rural Affairs (DAERA) have also held preliminary discussions with Plaswire around the potential for processing end of life fishing gear to reclaim otherwise difficult to recover and recycle plastic content.

The company is currently seeking options for diverting low grade plastic waste away from landfill, including proposals to manufacture recycled construction products to replace concrete, as well as localised energy generation avoiding the need for export.

Minister Poots said: "My emphasis for recycling is to realise the value of it to the local economy and thereby deliver both environmental and economic benefits.

"The Northern Ireland household waste recycling rate for 2018/19 is 50%, meeting the waste management strategy target of 50% by 2020 nearly two years ahead of schedule. I will build on this success."

Plaswire is also exploring the process of Pyrolysis, which uses high temperatures to convert waste plastic back into its building blocks. The process is also referred to as thermal cracking.