ALPLA Launches ALPLArecycling Brand & Expands Food-Grade rPET Production

Austria-based ALPLA Group, a global producer of injection and blow molded packaging, is expanding its role as a major international recycler of PET and HDPE with two new investments and the launch of the new ALPLArecycling brand to consolidate all its recycling activities. In June, ALPLA began construction of a PET recycling plant in South Africa, which will produce food-grade rPET when it opens in the fall of 2024. This “bottle-to-bottle” operation is intended to produce 77 million lb/yr of mechanically recycled PET.

In July, ALPLA announced the expansion of its existing PET recycling plant in Poland, where it is adding a third extrusion line that will boost annual capacity from 66 million lb to 162 million lb of food-grade rPET.

All told, ALPLA has invested more than 50 million euros a year in its global recycling activities since 2021. It currently operates 13 mechanical recycling plants for PET and HDPE in Austria, Germany, Poland, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Romania and Thailand, including four joint ventures with regional partners. Their combined production capacity is around 585.2 million lb of rPET and 184.8 million lb of rHDPE, for 770 million lb total. An ALPLA spokesman says the “majority” of this capacity is used for ALPLA’s own packaging production and some is sold to others. “Specific numbers cannot be given, as this varies,” the source said.