Austrian packaging manufacturer Alpla Group has announced that it is building a plant in Mexico for recycling high-density polyethylene (HDPE).
HDPE is used for a range of food and non-food uses, such as milk and juice bottles. Alpla moved into the field of HDPE recycling last year with the acquisition of two Spanish recycling companies, Suminco and Replacal.
The new Mexican facility, which is expected to produce 15,000 tonnes of post-consumer recycled material each year, will be located in Toluca.
Alpla is investing approximately €15 million in the project and plans to commence operations at the site in the second half of 2021, with 65 jobs expected to be created. Construction begins this autumn.
The company will be run as a 100% subsidiary of Alpla and will produce rHDPE for non-food applications, such as packaging solutions for personal care or household cleaning products.
“Alpla has been demonstrating forward-looking action in the field of recycling for many years,” said Georg Lässer, head of recycling at Alpla.
“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 achievement of the circular economy.”
Carlos Torres, Mexico regional manager, added: “This is how we generate demand among collection companies and support the development of the necessary infrastructure. In addition, we can offer our regional customers the ‘circularity’ demanded of recyclable materials.”
Alpla has experience in recycling post-consumer PET in Mexico. A joint venture between Alpla México, Coca-Cola México and Coca-Cola Femsa opened Latin America’s first bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in 2005.
The partners have established infrastructure for collecting and recycling used PET beverage bottles, and Alpla says that it is seeking to utilise this network and experience in its development of HDPE recycling in the region.
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