Austrian packaging solutions provider Alpla, along with Swiss firm Fromm, has established a new joint venture (JV), PET Recycling Team Wolfen, to recycle the PET from household recyclables.
Image: Alpla and Fromm have found new JV, PET Recycling Team Wolfen, at Wolfen location.
PET Recycling Team Wolfen will engage in the recycling of PET waste collected from the Gelber sack or yellow bag. Gelber sack is a German bin for household recyclables.
In July 2018, Alpla and Fromm first announced their PET recycling collaboration. Fromm Plastics subsidiary Texplast is currently involved in the installation of third extrusion line at the Wolfen location, which is expected to begin operations in May this year.
The new extrusion line will help increase the annual capacity for food-grade rPET by 15,000 tons.
To further expand operations, the partnership has created a PET Recycling Team Wolfen to recycle the PET bottles in the recyclables collected from households in Germany.
The companies have announced an investment of €7m to install new sorting and processing systems at the Texplast facility in Wolfen.
According to Alpla, the competition approval was granted and the implementation is expected to start this year.
PET Recycling Team Wolfen will engage in the recycling of PET from the yellow bag, with initial focus on PET rigid packaging solutions such as non-deposit food and beverage bottles, as well as bottles for cleaning products.
Alpla recycling head Georg Lässer said: “We want to process the clear bottles from the yellow bag in such a way that the material can be used in the production of new bottles. We create flakes out of the coloured PET for use in the manufacture of strapping bands.”
Alpla also noted that the there is an immense backlog for other forms of PET packaging such as trays, thermoforming films and blister packs.
Texplast’s Matthias Schäfer said: ‘The investment creates the conditions for further developing the recycling process for these items on an industrial scale in collaboration with the film industry.”
Alpla produces custom-made packaging systems, bottles, closures and moulded parts at 178 sites across 46 countries, while Fromm produces and supplies tailored packaging solutions for customers with around 40 companies across six continents.