Our History

Originally providing third party shredding and screening services, Material Change set up its first compost site in 2004. Over the last 15 years Material Change Ltd has expanded considerably and now has 6 compost facilities processing green waste, food waste and wood waste.

In 2006 Material Change became part of the Heathpatch Group with sister companies Global Recycling (who sell shredders and screens for the recycling industry), Camden Boss (sellers of electronics and casings) and PVP GmbH (a tyre recycling factory in Germany). Our current Managing Director, Ed Bastow, joined a year later in 2007.

2012 saw Material Change expand into the field of Anaerobic Digestion, constructing a 1.4MW electricity to grid Anaerobic Digestion plant at Symonds Farm in Risby, Bury St Edmunds under a joint venture arrangement with the landowner GEO Gittus and Sons. The site was completed on time and on budget and has been providing green electricity to local businesses and to the National Grid since it was commissioned.

Also in 2011 Material Change acquired the Corby and Creeting compost sites after the administration of County Mulch.  The Corby site added food waste processing, through the in-vessel composting system while the Creeting acquisition also provided new outlets to our recycling customers and added a wide variety of bark, mulch and fine grade compost products supplied from the site to the whole of the UK.

In 2014 and 2015 Material Change constructed two additional Anaerobic Digestion plants – a gas to grid plant located adjacent to the Helmdon Compost site and a 2.8MW Anaerobic Digestion plant adjacent to Material Change Decoy Compost site at Crowland, near Peterborough.  Material Change has long term operating contracts for both plants.

At the end of 2017, Material Change entered into a new arrangement with Foresight Investments. See here for more details.

In August 2019, Material Change and Foresight acquired  AD plants near Thetford and Newmarket, called Bay Farm and Euston Biogas. Both these AD sites are producing gas to grid on a large scale. Material Change has long term contracts to provide feedstock for the site, and to take digesate to farmland, and also to run the operation on site and provide labour and technical management.

In October 2019, Material Change took over a further two AD plants in Norfolk. Corner & Stafford. Both these sites are electricity to grid and are due to undergo major renovations over the next 12 months to prepare them for the second half of their original design life.

Going forward, we continue to seek strategic acquisitions of additional sites and new recycling opportunities that will allow us to enhance the services we are able to provide to our customers.