UK plastics reprocessor Jayplas is opening two plants in south Wales in a £45 million expansion that will more than double Wales's capacity for recycling post-consumer plastic and create 100 jobs by March 2028.

The facilities, at the former Toyoda Gosei factory in Gorseinon, Swansea, and Tafarnaubach Industrial Estate in Tredegar, will process at least 100,000 tonnes of flexible and rigid post-consumer plastics a year once fully operational. Welsh Government estimates put the resulting carbon reduction at around 150,000 tonnes of CO2 annually, equivalent to removing 120,000 cars from the road.

Jayplas, which has been recycling plastics since 1975, currently operates plants across the East Midlands and West Midlands where it sorts, washes and extrudes post-consumer plastics into recycled polymer pellets. The company received Welsh Government support in 2023 to develop the Gorseinon site; Tredegar is its second Welsh location and first expansion outside England.

Gorseinon has an automotive manufacturing heritage - Toyoda Gosei, a Japanese automotive parts manufacturer, operated the factory until its closure. Tredegar, in the heads of the valleys, has a long industrial history in steelmaking and ironworks.

Adam Price, Minister for Enterprise, Connectivity and Energy, said: "Jayplas choosing to open a second site here in Wales is a further boost to decarbonisation and will see the company create green jobs in an area with a rich industrial past. This is exactly the sort of sustainable, future-facing employment we want to foster as part of our transition to a circular economy."

Wales is approaching its statutory 70 per cent recycling target but has lacked the domestic infrastructure to reprocess much of the plastic it collects. Without local capacity, collected material leaves the country for processing elsewhere, and its value remains exposed to volatile international commodity prices. The Welsh Government says the new capacity will keep more of that material in the domestic supply chain.

Domestic plastics reprocessing infrastructure has been contracting across the wider UK. A Ceres report published earlier this month found the country had lost 22 per cent of its capacity since 2023, with low virgin polymer prices and high energy costs squeezing reprocessor margins. WRAP and Defra analysis from February 2025 forecast a 324,000 tonne annual shortfall in plastic packaging processing capacity by 2035 if exports remain at current levels.

Llyr Gruffydd, Minister for Rural Resilience and Sustainability, said expanding reprocessing capacity was "a vital step that will see the recycling, that we are world class at collecting, being processed into valuable material that then goes back into the economy. By keeping valuable materials in circulation and out of the environment, the Jayplas facility will help reduce emissions whilst delivering real benefits for communities and the natural environment across Wales."

Kerry O'Neill, Jayplas commercial manager, said the company had "worked closely with the Welsh Government to expand our operations into Wales" and would use "the latest, state of the art technology" at both sites. Both facilities are expected to be fully operational by March 2028.