Gloucestershire, UK. September 15th 2025 – The inventor of Neverwaste™ low carbon construction panels has agreed a deal to recommission the former production plant of Sundeala Ltd in Cam, Gloucestershire, creating dozens of new jobs.
The news was welcomed by Stroud MP Dr Simon Opher as “a wonderful opportunity for the rebirth of an old mill” and to continue operations on a site that had been in use for more than 250 years until the collapse of Sundeala two years ago. Administrator Grant Thornton has agreed a sale to property investors on behalf of Unwasted, the Neverwaste owner.
Unwasted has invested millions of pounds developing and patenting a unique process for upcycling waste cellulose into high specification construction panels that can be used to make furniture, doors, kitchens, and flooring in a totally circular production process. No virgin timber is required and no glues or toxic chemicals are used. The panels can be remade into new product at the end of life many times over.
Dr Opher said: “Unwasted’s proposal to transform the old pinboard plant at Cam is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring world class green manufacturing to the area and in the process create 70 new jobs.”
Unwasted is also relocating its R&D centre from Deeside in north Wales to the site in Cam where it will continue to explore new techniques in waste fibre technology. It plans to create apprenticeships and community education in the upcycling of waste resources.
The £20m investment in the Cam plant will enable it to produce 10,000 cubic metres of product annually when fully operational for sale to manufacturers and distributors in the UK and north west Europe.
Unwasted founder and CEO Rod Fountain said: “It is wonderful to be able to upcycle an old mill as our first commercial production plant and to re-energise old equipment to make a state-of-the-art product fit for the net zero world we urgently need to create.”
He said the company had already identified both the funding and the sites suitable for building much larger ‘regenerators’ across Europe once Cam was operational. “We plan to use our new base in Gloucestershire to seed a rapid expansion of our production capacity to serve a market that is desperate for green sustainable alternatives.”
Neverwaste™ is also recognised today in the launch of the UK Green Building Council’s map of the best innovations in the construction materials industry. The map is being launched for use by industry as part of a new initiative between UKGBC, @Breakthrough Energy, and @FORE Partnership to encourage greater adoption of innovative solutions in commercial buildings, accelerating the decarbonisation of the nation’s building stock. Explore the map here: https://ukgbc.org/resources/commercial-retrofit-innovation-map/