Turning the tide: Leading North West energy firms join the fight for a plastic-free future

INNOVATIVE energy companies in the North West are joining forces to tackle the region’s plastic problem and create a solution for the future.

Peel Environmental’s Protos team, PowerHouse Energy Group plc and the University of Chester’s Thornton Science Park are supporting the Wildlife Trust’s ‘Our Irish Sea’ – a three-year project to champion the region’s marine life across Merseyside, Manchester and Lancashire.

Volunteers from Peel’s Protos energy destination have spent time ‘Nurdle Hunting’ at Crosby beach, a family-friendly way to hunt and rid our beaches of small plastic pellets that end up washed up on our shores.

It’s all part of a mission to develop new technologies that will help cut the amount of plastic that ends up in our sea and landfill. PowerHouse Energy Group plc, based at Thornton Science Park near Ellesmere Port, are currently developing a disruptive technology to convert waste plastic and tyres into hydrogen. This could in the future create carbon-negative fuel to power the North West’s homes and transport.

It swiftly follows the Government’s 25-year Environmental Plan that features ambitious targets to reduce plastic use, and household names such as supermarket Iceland aiming to be plastic free by 2023.