A veteran of the Scottish chemicals industry has won backing from financiers for an attempt to cash-in on retailers' desire to boost their green credentials by using recycled food packaging.

A veteran of the Scottish chemicals industry has won backing from financiers for an attempt to cash-in on retailers' desire to boost their green credentials by using recycled food packaging.

Anton Davis is preparing to start production of a new green film from a plant in East Kilbride this month after winning £450,000 funding from the Highland Venture Capital business angel network and the state-funded Scottish Coinvestment Fund.

Trading under the name of Ecopet Extrusion, Davis' venture will be the first established in Scotland to capitalise on technology that allows producers to reuse the millions of plastic drink bottles that end up in recycling bins every year.

While a large proportion of these are exported, a number of facilities have been set up in England where bottles made from Polyethylene Terephthalate (Pet) are sorted, cleaned and then ground into a substance that can be used in other processes.

Ecopet is investing around £800,000 in total equipping a facility in which it will use the ground Pet as the raw material in the production of food grade Pet film and sheeting.

The company will have 13 employees when manufac turing starts later this month. Aged 45, Davis said he had founded the venture in response to the growing desire of supermarkets and the like to use environmentally friendly' packaging.

A chemical engineer by training, who used to work for ICI, Davis said he had decided to start up in Scotland at least partly because good grant support was available.

He declined to give any details of his business plan. However, Iain Scott, chairman of Highland Venture Capital, said Ecopet was expected to achieve annual turnover of £9m in its third year.

Inverness-based Highland Venture Capital has more than 30 members, the majority based in the Highlands.

It recently invested £300,000 in Applied Microwave Technology, which is developing techniques to process the blood produced in abattoirs.