Infrastructure

Advancing Europe’s circular economy ambitions

Macquarie is supporting a leading waste-to-resource company scale its contribution to Europe and the UK’s growing circular economies.

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Sector	Infrastructure
Sub-sector	Waste management
Location	Ireland

Opportunity

Nearly 530kg of municipal waste is produced per person each year in Europe.¹ As the region’s population has grown and the impact of waste on the environment has become clearer, policymakers have sought to limit the amount of waste that is produced and ultimately sent to landfill.

This increasing focus has seen both the EU and England set targets aiming for more than 60 per cent of municipal waste to be recycled or prepared for reuse by the 2030s.^2,3 These moves are encouraging the growth of the region’s circular economy, creating opportunities for waste-to-resource companies focused on advanced recycling and materials recovery.

Beauparc leaders reflect on the company's growth and how it is transforming and investing in new and existing facilities to expand its recycling and recovery capabilities.

Approach

In 2021, Macquarie Asset Management invested in Beauparc, a recycling and processing-led waste-to-resource business. Each year, Beauparc handles more than 4.3 million tonnes of waste generated by household and commercial customers through its network of more than 70 locations across Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands.⁴

As well as providing traditional waste collection and disposal services, Beauparc has invested heavily in its processing, recycling and recovery capabilities. Beauparc is seeking to minimise the amount of waste that would otherwise be destined for landfill by producing economic resources including recycled PET plastic, refuse derived fuels, recovered soils and biofuels from waste.

Macquarie recognised Beauparc could play an even greater role in the circular economy by leveraging its established position at the centre of the waste value chain. With Macquarie’s support, Beauparc has begun transforming and investing in new and existing facilities to expand its recycling and recovery capabilities beyond paper, metals and plastics.

Outcome

With Macquarie’s backing and expertise in the waste management sector developed over more than 15 years, Beauparc has entered a new phase of organic and inorganic growth.

In the first two years of Macquarie’s ownership, annual capital expenditure delivered by Beauparc trebled.⁵ Additional capital mobilised in support of its strategic growth plans has seen the company complete a series of strategic acquisitions, expanding its footprint in Ireland and the UK. Investment is also being delivered across its network, aiming to modernise facilities and increase safety for its growing workforce.

Beauparc is further diversifying its business by expanding into more nascent and innovative aspects of the circular economy. This includes partnering with anaerobic digestors to provide organic waste to produce electricity and investing in bioenergy production to convert waste wood to energy and keep resources in use within the economy for longer. The business also continues to broaden its technological investment to do more with the waste it already handles. An incineration ash treatment project in development will aim to increase metal recovery and produce a recycled aggregate suitable for road construction. Similarly, a soil treatment project being developed by Beauparc aims to expand recycled compost production.

While supporting the growth of the circular economy, Beauparc is taking steps to reduce its own environmental footprint. With Macquarie’s support, the company committed to net zero emissions by 2040.⁴ To help achieve this goal, Beauparc is investing in onsite renewable energy generation and storage such as rooftop solar and batteries. Beauparc has implemented and continues to explore the use of decarbonisation technologies for its fleet of refuse collection vehicles in the UK and Ireland⁶ alongside compressed natural gas vehicles.⁴

4.3 million

tonnes of waste handled each year

First

fleet of electric refuse collection vehicles in Ireland

3x

increase in capex delivered in first two years

We see a significant opportunity to build on Beauparc’s strong reputation in the sector and are investing to support its growing contribution to the region’s circular economy."

Hani Zogheib
Macquarie Asset Management

Municipal Waste Statistics, European Commission 2023.
Reaching 2030s Residual Municipal Waste Target, European Environment Agency 2022.
Progress Report on Recycling and Recovery Targets for England, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 2022
'Beauparc Sustainability Report 2023’, Beauparc, 12 July 2024,
Annual average for FY20-21 compared to following two years, Beauparc.
Panda Unveils Ireland’s First Electric Refuse Truck, Beauparc 2020.

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Macquarie Asset Management

Perspective

20 years of investing in Ireland’s economy

Case study

Ireland’s largest education project financed through a PPP