A hi-tech firm which produces a machine to convert waste plastic into electricity has set up in Swindon.

Recycling Technologies was officially launched yesterday at its plant at South Marston Park.

The company came out of the University of Warwick in 2011, with help from Warwick Ventures Ltd, the university’s research commercialisation company.

In Swindon, they will manufacture their system, the WarwickFBR, designed to produce heat and electricity from plastic destined for landfill Managing director Adrian Griffiths said Swindon was chosen because it is near his home in Purton.

He said: “This is the first time we’ve got a building. This is where we’re going to centre the technology development and the manufacturing.

“Until now, we’ve been based at the University of Warwick and Birmingham. We’ve been very much in the ether, if you like, and now we have crystalised out of the ether and we’re in Swindon.”

Today, according to the waste giant Viridor, 85 per cent of plastic in the UK is still landfilled.

Recycling Technologies says its technology can eliminate this by turning it into energy.

Using a process called pyrolysis, the mixed plastics are transformed into gas, filtered to remove impurities and condensed to output a wax like fuel. The fuel can then be used in a suitable engine and generator in place of, for example, diesel.

Recycling Technologies says there are many environmental benefits, including reducing landfill and using waste instead of fossil fuels to create electricity. Their system will produce enough fuel to generate up to three megawatts of electricity and a similar amount of heat.

Mr Griffiths said: “There are an enormous number of companies that buy mixed plastics and try to sort it out and get the advantage in price of it being further sorted. It’s probably not very often worth trying to put people in to sort that plastic out. It’s of more value if you convert it to energy.”

The firm has five staff and hopes to have 12 by the end of the year and 30 to 40 within the next couple of years.

Phil Young, director of investment at Forward Swindon, which helped the firm set up in Swindon, said: “We have given some help to them all the way through, in looking at how we can support them through the marketing, the recruitment, and we looked at some sites for them as well to see where they could set up.”