Environmental group Friends of the Earth has launched a campaign to save 120 jobs at a Dagenham recycling plant.
The group claims the survival of Closed Loop, Choats Road, has been put under threat by some of the country’s biggest retailers.
Launched as the first anaerobic digestion waste recycling plant in the capital, the plant is now said to be suffering with the likes of supermarket giants Tesco and Sainsbury’s rumoured to be going back on a voluntary deal they had signed.
Under that agreement, 30 per cent of the plastic in their milk bottles should come from recycled sources. But with the cost of oil plummeting, it has become increasingly cheaper for dairy companies and retailers to use more non-recycled plastic.
Closed Loop was opened by Business Secretary Vince Cable in April last year.
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