NEWS


Alpla moves into HDPE recycling in Spain


Packaging major Alpla has acquired Spanish recyclers Suminco and Replacal, expanding its recycling activities from PET to polyolefins. Alpla has not disclosed financial terms of the deal. The group operates two


PET recycling plants in Austria and Poland, under the PET Recycling Team name, along with joint ventures in Mexico and Germany. These operations currently have an annual capacity of 70,000 tonnes. Its new acquisitions in Spain mark Alpla’s first move into recycling HDPE, another large-scale rigid packaging material. In the UK market, Alpla currently uses 13,000 tpa of recycled HDPE in its production of milk and juice bottles. “The investment in the


two recycling plants in Spain brings us one step closer to our overall goal of being the leading manufacturer of sus- tainable plastic packaging,” said Georg Lässer, Head of Recycling at Alpla. Suminco, located in


Urbanrec project delivers


Alpla uses rHDPE in its milk bottle production for the UK market


Montcada (near Barcelona), and Replacal in Palencia (north of Madrid), have 50 employees in total and will continue to operate under the existing management. Their joint annual capacity will be expanded to 35,000 tonnes, said Alpla. The companies’ rHDPE produc- tion has mainly been used in corrugated pipes for sewage and rainwater and other special pipes. Alpla said it now intends to use suitable recyclates from the operations for packaging production. “We are safeguarding our produc- tion plants’ material supply and are doing our bit to


achieve a functioning circular economy,” said Lässer. Suminco and Replacal’s former owner Jose Peruga said: “The strong and recognised quality of our products in post-consumer recycling for more than three decades together with the synergies that will be created with Alpla will allow us to improve the quality of our products even more. And Alpla can produce HDPE packaging with a high content of recycled post- consumer material, as their customers and consumers demand.” � www.alpla.com � www.suminco.com


results The Urbanrec project to recycle bulky waste, such as mattresses and upholstery, has finished and results were pre- sented by project members in Brussels in November. In the project, new collection and disassem- bling processes for bulky waste were developed to obtain high value-added recycled products such as adhesives and foams for mattresses, solvents and additives, plus foams and textiles for thermal insulation, and reinforced plastics such as wood- plastic composites. Chemical and mechanical processes were devel- oped, including 3D cut fragmentation and a catalytic hydro-gasifica- tion plasma process. Two guides on


ecodesign and imple- mentation have been published as a result of the project. � https://urbanrec-project.eu


UNEP suggests joint waste solutions for SE Asia


A new report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) says that limited packaging-related policies and weak enforcement are aggravating the problem of plastic pollution in South- East Asian countries. The report recommends adoption


of harmonised policies in the ASEAN countries to jointly tackle the issue. It also suggests that countries would


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benefit from shared technology hubs in the ASEAN region for recycling and monitoring of the trade in plastic waste. The report, called The Role of


Packaging Regulations and Standards in Driving the Circular Economy, looks at policies on packaging waste and standards in 10 countries, including ones in South-east Asia..


PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | November/December 2019


UNEP said more than half of the land-based plastic pollution in oceans originates from five countries, four of which are in South-East Asia. In addition to the environmental impact, it estimates plastic litter in the Asia- Pacific region costs its tourism, fishing and shipping industries $1.3bn per year. � www.unenvironment.org


www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com


PHOTO: ALPLA


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