36
offering an environmental service, it
will boost the region’s economy,’ the
partners stress.
WORLD WITHOUT WASTE
The facility will be Alpla’s third recy-
cling plant in Mexico making the com-
SOUTHERN EUROPE TOO
EUR 5 million has been invested in an
extrusion system for food-grade rPET
made from used bottles in Anagni,
central Italy and home to one of the
Alpla’s major preform production
plants. The facility currently produces
50 000 tonnes of PET a year of which
only a very small proportion is recy-
cled material. In future, says the com-
Alpla’s annual recycling capacity amounts to more than 130 000 tonnes of PET and 60
000 tonnes of PE.
Singapore, Alpla’s Asia-Pacific hub.
pany, a substantial portion will be
recycled ‘to give customers the option
of sourcing preforms made partly or
even entirely of rPET’.
Alpla has installed an extrusion system
for 15 000 tonnes of rPET a year at
the existing business premises.
Georg Lässer, head of recycling at
Alpla, considers the investment to be
a forward-looking strategic decision.
‘We want to promote the bottle-to-
bottle cycle and avoid down-cycling.
In addition, we would like to boost
local recycling solutions in a region
that until now has not had the neces-
sary infrastructure for the bottle loop.’
NEW FRONTIER MEXICO
Across the Atlantic, Mexico still has a
long way to go compared to Europe
but Alpla has high hopes for plastics
recycling in this emerging economy.
A major multi-million dollar plant to
recycle plastic bottles in the south-
east of the country is underway in a
joint venture between Alpla and Coca-
Cola. Again the project is being hailed
as a major boost for the circular econ-
omy in the region.
With an investment of more than US$
60 million (EUR 54 million), the Planta
Nueva Ecología de Tabasco (Planeta)
will be equipped with the latest tech-
nology. It will have the capacity to
process 50 000 tonnes of post-con-
sumer PET bottles per year, delivering
35 000 tonnes of rPET flakes.
Construction and operation of the
Planeta recycling plant is expected to
generate thousands of jobs. The facili-
ty will be supplied by a network of 18
collection centres spread across south
and south-east Mexico. ‘In addition to
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