Sheffield firm plans £50m Gateshead materials recovery facility as it rebrands to MATIQ. Sheffield-based materials recovery firm Direct Special Metals has rebranded as MATIQ and confirmed plans to invest approximately £50 million in a new facility at Derwenthaugh Ecoparc in Gateshead, which the company says will become the UK's most advanced materials recovery facility.
The rebrand comes alongside a contract win with City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council to receive and process co-mingled dry mixed recycling collected across the district, running to 31 March 2029 with an option for a further year.
The Gateshead facility, on the former Graphite Resources site, will increase the group's processing capacity and create what MATIQ describes as a strategic recovery hub for the North East. The company, founded in Sheffield in 2013, completed a £25 million investment in its Sheffield site in 2024 before progressing the Gateshead development.
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.