Lancashire firm fined £142,000 for illegal waste exports to Malaysia. A Lancashire plastics company and its director have been fined a combined £142,114 for illegally exporting contaminated waste to Malaysia. 3R Technology UK Ltd, based in Preston, pleaded guilty to 16 offences at Preston Magistrates’ Court, including shipping waste misrepresented as clean plastic.
The Environment Agency said 16 containers of contaminated plastic, containing electrical components, wiring and circuit boards, were shipped to Malaysia between April 2022 and February 2025. Director Yulin Wang was sentenced to 120 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £15,114 in costs, while the company was fined £80,000 with £47,000 in costs and surcharges.
The UK processed 4.013 million tonnes of waste wood in 2025, 89 per cent of the total generated, according to annual statistics from the Wood Recyclers' Association. The figure is down 7.3 per cent on 2024 after unplanned outages at end-use plants created oversupply and squeezed storage.
recell.store, the Altilium-owned marketplace for used EV batteries, has partnered with testing firm ClearWatt to offer battery health assessments to salvage yards and dismantlers. A pilot will use ClearWatt's EV Flash Test to generate independent health data supporting marketplace transactions.
Packaging firm Pact Group has invested in Plan B Circular, the UK textile-to-textile polyester recycler behind Project Re:claim, its joint venture with the Salvation Army Trading Company (SATCoL). The deal aims to scale polyester recycling ahead of EU legislation expected in 2028.