PET Recycling Team Wolfen recycles the PET from household recyclables

ALPLA and FROMM announced their PET recycling collaboration for the first time in July 2018. Texplast, a subsidiary of FROMM Plastics GmbH, is in the processes of installing a third extrusion line at the Wolfen location, which will begin operating in May and increase the annual capacity for food-grade rPET by 15,000 tonnes.

The next step: ALPLA and FROMM are founding a joint venture, PET Recycling Team Wolfen GmbH, the aim of which is to recycle the PET bottles in the recyclables collected from households in Germany. The collaboration partners are investing €7 million in sorting and processing systems at the Texplast facility in Wolfen. The competition approval was granted, and the implementation should begin in 2019. The contracting partners have agreed not to disclose any further details.

Efficient value creation, optimised logistics

PET Recycling Team Wolfen will recycle the PET from the yellow bag, initially focusing on PET rigid packaging – most notably non-deposit food and beverage bottles as well as bottles for cleaning products. ‘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,’ says Georg Lässer, Head of Recycling at ALPLA.

Further developing recycling for PET trays

There’s a huge backlog for other forms of PET packaging such as trays, thermoforming films and blister packs. Examples include fruit trays, packaging for sausage and cheese, and memory cards. ‘The investment creates the conditions for further developing the recycling process for these items on an industrial scale in collaboration with the film industry. In this way, we also play an important role in achieving legal recycling targets,’ says Matthias Schäfer of Texplast. ‘We also thus ensure that we can continue to produce our PET strapping bands from 100% recycled materials.’

Further information about the companies: www.alpla.com and sustainability.alpla.com; www.fromm-pack.com and www.texplast.de

About ALPLA:

ALPLA is one of the leading companies involved in plastic packaging. Around 20,800 employees worldwide produce custom-made packaging systems, bottles, closures and moulded parts at 178 sites across 46 countries. The high-quality packaging is used in a wide range of areas, including for food and drinks, cosmetics and care products, household detergents, washing and cleaning agents, pharmaceutical products, engine oils and lubricants.

ALPLA operates its own recycling plants: PET Recycling Team with a site in both Austria and Poland, and in the form of a joint venture in Mexico. A collaboration with FROMM/Texplast in Germany has been in place since July 2018.

About FROMM and Texplast:

The FROMM Group is a leading global company producing load securement systems for the transportation of goods and has over 70 years of history. Over 1,200 employees develop, produce and distribute tailored packaging solutions for customers with around 40 companies across six continents. FROMM specialises in strapping bands, air cushion packaging and stretch film, as well as the corresponding machinery and equipment.

FROMM has production sites in Italy, Germany, USA, Thailand, Chile and Slovakia

Texplast GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of FROMM Plastics GmbH in Kölleda. The company has over 100 employees and, with an input capacity of over 50,000 tonnes of bottles per year, is one of the leading recyclers of rPET in Western Europe, in particular for used beverage bottles. Texplast produces flakes for applications in the plastics industry, particularly the Group’s in-house band production, as well as regranulate for the production of food packaging.