THE AM for Blaenau Gwent and the Minister for Natural Resources and Food visited a thriving recycling-friendly company in his constituency last week.

On Friday (June 6), Alun Davies was given a guided tour of Tilon Composites, based at Rassau Industrial Estate in Ebbw Vale, which specialises in the manufacture of extruded products from recycled plastic reinforced with fibreglass.

The company, which has an expected turnover of £1.1 million for the next financial year, has gone from strength to strength since it began six years ago. The company employs 10 people on a full-time basis, and also has a recycling arm where it crumbs recycled carpet and also turns recycled plastic into a reprocessed pellet to sell to other users.

They specialise in the production of scaffold boards, noise barrier systems, composite decking, industrial partitioning and pedestrian barrier. Their clients include Wylfa Power Station, Kellogg’s, Coca Cola, and the Royal Mint to name a few, while they have ongoing projects on roads all across Wales.

Mr Davies said: “Businesses like these are important to the area but are also important to the whole of Wales because we are trying to get a circular economy. It’s important to us that we can take new products from waste, use them well, and in turn create economic growth.”

Stephen O’Leary, managing director at Tilon Composites, said: “I bought the business in 2008 – I saw that there was a strategic opportunity, shall we say.

“We are unique in Wales and our product lasts three or four times longer than timber when it is used in the same way.”

The company wants to keep growing and has ambitions of breaking into the construction industry, while also continuing to employ people from the area.

Steven Barnes, business development manager, said: “We’ve always been a bit of a sleeping giant. We are looking to work with local authorities to bring in local people.

“Our high strength materials require little maintenance, provide long life expectations and look great.”