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Between January last year and this year, the price of recycled PET tablets in Europe soared 103 per cent to €1,690 a tonne, according to ICIS, a global commodity market information service. Demand for recycled plastic is largely responsible for the sharp rise in prices. Global recycling companies are also strengthening their recycling capacity.
ALPLA expands PET recycling capacity
ALPLA Group, one of Europe's leading recyclers, said that through the acquisition of Recycling company Texplast and all of its shares in joint venture PET Recycling Team Wolfen, as well as the acquisition of BTB Recycling earlier in 2021, Increased its PET bottle recycling capacity in Germany by 75,000 tons per year, making it one of the largest PET recycling companies in Germany.
ALPLA said it is investing in the quality and availability of German "bottle-to-bottle" rPET recycled materials through the full acquisition of Texplast, formerly part of the FROMM Group, which produces PET pellets and flakes from PET bottles used. These particles are primarily used in preforms for new PET bottles, while the colored PET flakes produced in the process are used by FROMM to produce packaging strips, although in recent years the focus has shifted significantly to bottle recycling.
The total annual production capacity of ALPLA with the three recycling companies, joint ventures and co-operatives is 203,000 tonnes of rPET and 74,000 tonnes of rHDPE.
Phillip Lehner, CEO of ALPLA, explains: "Our goal is to go from bottle to bottle. We are stepping up our activities globally to meet the growing demand for post-consumer recycling. This investment will strengthen our position in the German market and guarantee the high quality and availability of materials for our customers."
IVL acquires companies to increase rPET supply
Indorama Ventures (IVL), one of the world's largest beverage bottle recycling PET producers, said its acquisition of 85% of the PET plastic recycler UCY Polymers, by 2025 can recycle more than 1.6 billion PET beverage bottles per year.
IVL said that as a result of this investment, it will recycle about 1.12 billion additional post-consumer PET plastic bottles per year in the Czech Republic by 2025, which will reportedly increase the total number of bottles it recycles in the Czech Republic, Germany, and 1.6 billion bottles per year in Central Europe.
Indorama Ventures is handling recycled PET bottles.
According to IVL, UCY integrates the growing recycled PET footprint in Europe and secures raw materials for rPET products. UCY says it can produce 40,000 tons of rPET flakes a year.
UCY and IVL will work with existing PET chip manufacturing facilities that provide washed and chopped post-consumer bottles as PET chip raw materials to produce recycled PET resins suitable for food contact use to meet the growing demand for rPET in Europe. In particular, some major players in the European beverage industry have called for prioritizing recyclable and food-grade materials.
DK Agarwal, CEO and CFO of Indorama Ventures, commented: "IVL will use its expertise to increase capacity and recycle more and more bottles. As part of our commitment to sustainable development and a circular economy, we are building the necessary recycling infrastructure to move PET waste out of the environment.
Maximilian Josef Sollner, CEO of UCY, concluded: "Our facilities will recover 896 million more bottles by 2025 compared to today, meaning an expansion of our capacity."
Australia's largest rPET plant opens
Australia's largest PET recycling plant, a $45 million joint venture between Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and Asahi Beverages, has opened.
The facility can process 1 billion 600ml PET beverage bottles per year (30,000 tonnes per year) while significantly increasing the total amount of locally sourced rPET, which is expected to increase Australia's recycled PET (rPET) production by two-thirds to 50,000 tonnes per year. It is now the largest PET recycling plant in Australia.
A second plant of similar size will begin construction in April west of Melbourne, and will start production by 2023, recycling the equivalent of 1 billion PET bottles a year at an investment of $50 million.
Construction of the world's first industrial enzymolysis PET recycling plant in France
The plant will be operational in Longlaville, France, in the middle of 2025, with a capacity of 50,000 tons per year, creating 150 direct and indirect jobs.
Indorama plans to co-finance the project and is considering introducing the bio-recycling technology to other countries.
This strategic project has the strong support of the French Government, including financing, and the French Minister of Economy, Finance and Rehabilitation, as well as the representative of the Minister of Industry, have spoken in support.
The announcement of the project comes after Carbios successfully got its demonstration plant up and running. Therefore, the new project will become the world's first industrial enzymolysis PET bio-recycling plant, with a capacity of 50,000 tons equivalent to 2 billion beverage bottles or 2.5 billion PET trays (boxes). Indorama has evaluated the potential of the enzymatic hydrolysis technology over the past few months, and both parties have agreed to jointly conduct due diligence. A feasibility study will be conducted to industrialize the technology at a factory in Indorama, France. When both assessments are completed, Indorama will co-finance the project.
The investment in the new plant is estimated at 150 million euros, including the addition of new purification steps. In addition, the infrastructure investment for the plant is estimated at 50 million euros. Both the French government and the local government will provide financial support for the project.
Building a plastic waste recycling plant in Las Vegas
Phoenix-based Republic Services Inc. recently announced plans to build a 75,000-square-foot (7,000-square-meter) complex plastic recycling facility in Las Vegas, just seven miles from an MRF Republic Opened in 2015. Also billed as the first polymer center, the facility will produce 100 million pounds (45,360 tons) of recycled plastic when it opens in 2023. It will consist of two production lines, 65 percent of which will supply PET bottle flakes to bottle-to-bottle companies, and one line that will serve the polyolefin market, but the future development goal is to achieve a 50-50 ratio.
The plant is designed to have a capacity of 160 million pounds, but the company believes it will be smaller than that in early mass production. The facility will process raw materials collected by Republic Services in the West and will also accept materials from third parties. The purpose is to meet packaging brands in California and Washington, D.C., due to regulations that must be added to the recycled content requirements. Infrastructure works have been completed, "environmental assessment" and other certificates have been obtained. The plant will be built on top of an existing structure, expanded and renovated. Republic Services said it had bought krones' turnkey services, including equipment and technology such as electro-optical sorting, opener, flotation and cleaning tanks.
With 71 facilities nationwide and 2021 sales of $421 million, only Waste Management is larger. Republic Services has plans to build three more similar plants for national coverage by 2025. Republic Services' long-term goal is to increase the amount of recycled key materials by 40% by 2030 to help customers achieve their sustainability goals.
North Africa's largest rPET producer builds new plant in Egypt
BariQ for Techno and Advanced Industries recently signed an agreement to build a new bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in Governorate, Egypt. On February 13, BariQ invited Egyptian ministers, foreign ambassadors, brands and equipment suppliers to the opening ceremony of its new bottle-to-bottle recycling plant.
When completed, the plant will be able to produce 35,000 tons of food-grade rPET particles per year. The new facility will complement its first plant, which opened in 2010. The new plant will be equipped with four Taurang separation lines and can process 3 tonnes of waste plastic bottles per hour. Currently, the company has a capacity of 15,000 tons of food-grade rPET per year, which meets EFSA, FDA, Health Canada and REACH requirements.
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