NEWS


Loop Industries is hit by investor lawsuits in US


Canadian chemical recy- cling company Loop Industries is under investiga- tion by the US Securities and Exchange Commission after a series of lawsuits were filed against the company by law firms representing investors. It is alleged in the lawsuits that Loop Industries made false or misleading statements and did not disclose material adverse facts. The lawsuits were


initiated after a report was published by Hindenburg Research on 13 October which claimed Loop Industries had no viable technology for recycling PET, as the company had been reporting. Hindenburg made its claims on the basis of conversations it had held with former employees, competitors, industry experts, and company partners. It also reviewed company documentation and litigation records. In the report, it said:


“Former employees revealed that Loop operated two labs:


Funding for four


UK projects UK Research and Innova- tion (UKRI) is investing £20m from its Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund in four plastics recycling projects. Three receiving a


one reserved for the company’s two twenty-some- thing lead scientist brothers and their father, where incredible results were achieved, and a separate lab where rank-and-file employ- ees were unable to replicate the supposedly break- through results.” Loop Industries respond- ed to Hindenburg in a statement, saying: “The claims it makes are either unfounded, incorrect, or based on the first iteration of Loop’s technology, known as Gen 1, which was in use between 2014 and 2017. In 2017, Loop reinvented its process and developed its Gen 2 technology, which is


at the core of Loop’s commercialisation projects.” The group faced a further setback when Coca-Cola CEPG said it would termi- nate a supply contract it had signed with Loop Industries in 2018. The contract involved purchase of PET from a joint venture facility being built by Loop Indus- tries and Indorama Ventures in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Loop Industries said Coca-Cola CEPG was terminating the contract because the first production milestone from the facility had not been achieved by July 2020, as was required in the contract. � www.loopindustries.com


share of the funds are chemical recycling projects: ReNew ELP is proposing a plant centred on a Catalytic Hydrothermal Reactor; Recycling Technologies is set to build a plant that uses thermal cracking; Poseidon Plastics aims to commercialise its novel enhanced recycling technology at a 15,000 tpa PET recycling facility. The fourth project is a dual PET bottle and tray mechanical recycling project led by Veolia UK. UKRI said its £20m investment, plus around £65m of industry invest- ment, represents the largest investment the UK has made in plastic packaging recycling technologies. � www.ukri.org


Alpla commits to rHDPE plant in Mexico


Major packaging group Alpla has acquired a property in Toluca, Mexico, where it said it will build a HDPE recycling plant. The group is investing approximate- ly €15m in the facility, which will have an annual capacity of 15,000 tonnes of rHDPE. The material will be sold in Mexico, neighbouring countries and the US for non-food packaging


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applications, Including personal care or household cleaning products. Georg Lässer, Head of Recycling at


Alpla, said: “Alpla has been demon- strating forward-looking action in the field of recycling for many years. We invest in regions where the demand for recycled material is not yet that high. In doing this, we give used plastics value and act as role models for the achieve-


PLASTICS RECYCLING WORLD | November/December 2020


ment of the circular economy.” Since 2005, Alpla has been a


partner in a PET recycling joint venture in Mexico with Coca-Cola. Alpla said it aims to utilise the network built by the Industria Mexicana de Reciclaje JV in its development of HDPE recycling within the region. Alpla also has two rHDPE plants in Spain. � www.alpla.com


www.plasticsrecyclingworld.com


IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK


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