Big Atom plans Ellesmere port expansion plus 2nd recycling site

Big Atom has big plans. The circular economy start-up, which already boasts the North West’s second-largest tyre recycling plant, is set to ramp-up capacity at its Ellesmere Port headquarters and has plans for two more additional locations as well as the implementation of its pyrolysis technology in the next year or two.

Talk to Big Atom founder Alex Guslisty and you are sure to have a conversation as much about business philosophy as it is about the nuts and bolts of the tyre recycling business. True to form, when Tyres & Accessories visited Big Atom’s Ellesmere Port base, Guslisty began by setting his businesses position as a start-up into the wider context provided by contemporary start-ups:

“Comparing us with previous start-ups, we’re different. The last couple of decades have focused on the creations of concepts such as software-as-a-service (SaaS). But now it is about using all that has been learnt from those experiences to propel heavy industry forward – something Elon Musk is doing with Tesla and Space X, for example. Therefore, this is a whole new generation of technological development within which Big Atom fits.” In short, heavy industry should be at the centre of new technology.

In order to achieve such goals, you need to be the kind of entrepreneur that is willing to get going and learn on the job, rather than have everything finished before the design is placed on a pre-assembled production line. Big Atom’s presence in Ellesmere Port provides a real-life example of that go-getting approach. By opening a tyre recycling operation on an industrial estate a stone’s throw away from the Essa UK oil refinery site, the company has been able to test its base case theories in the real world from the get-go. Initially, this has simply meant: can the business successfully recycle used tyres via tyre shredding and granulating; and can it generate a business from the kinds of gate fees expected?

“We went in expecting to learn. We have done that. So, the models are based on fact and expertise, not projections” – Big Atom founder – Alex Guslisty explained.

Such a hands-on business method provides the opportunity to test the design of its recycling sites and to learn what must be in place in order to generate the kind of consistent particle sizes necessary for pyrolysis. From there, company representatives believe they will be able to operate a more “circular” model moving beyond basic recycling of steel and polymers towards the continuous recycling of tyres, breaking them down into their constituent parts before re-supplying the materials back to businesses such as the tyre industry to be used in new products that can be subsequently recycled in the same way.

Rapid expansion plans

In short, Big Atom’s learn-on-the-job work in Ellesmere Port has resulted in the Northwest’s second-largest tyre recycling site. The lessons learnt from this project mean the business is better prepared to expand again. And that’s exactly what Alex Guslisty intends to do, with the opening of a second and perhaps third site scheduled in the next year or two. The second site will be located “in the Leeds area” and is expected to be more truck and bus tyre recycling-focused than the Ellesmere port site, which work both car and truck tyres, but the majority of its throughput is car tyre-based.

“We went in expecting to learn. We have done that. So, the models are based on fact and expertise, not projections” Guslisty explained.

Currently, the Ellesmere Port site processes some 600 tonnes of tyres a month. This figure is set to double during the next six months. After that, Big Atom will open site number two in Yorkshire. Rather than test the water, as the company has done at the Ellesmere Port site, the Yorkshire operation will be designed to go straight to 1600 tonnes a month phased in over 12 months. The difference with the new site is that it will from the ground up with the benefit of Ellesmere Port experience. As a result of all these developments, Big Atom’s national processing capacity is set to swell to between four and five times current levels by the end of 2023. There is even talk of a third site on the road-map, however it is too early to get into detail about that particular plan.

So, what’s next? You might think that Big Atom has already achieved much and has suitably big plans on the horizon. However, the overall vision is bigger still. While tyres are very much the focus of today, in addition Guslisty wants Big Atom to recycle other rubber and plastic products in the same way. In other words, he wants to help make polymers circular.