The cooperation in the field of PET recycling established between FROMM/Texplast and the Austrian group ALPLA, a specialist in the development of plastic packaging, announced in July 2018, has already proven its worth and is being strengthened with a joint venture.
The PET Recycling Team Wolfen will focus on recovering PET waste from so-called "yellow bags." In line with this new resource, Texplast, FROMM's recycling plant where the polyester used in 100% polyester strapping is produced, is currently building a third extrusion line at its Wolfen facility in Germany. This new line will become operational in May and will increase the annual production capacity of rPET food-grade pellets by 15 tons.
The main objective of the PET Recycling Team Wolfen is to return pressed PET packaging, sourced from door-to-door household waste collection in Germany, to the recycling cycle. To achieve this, the partners in this cooperation are investing seven million euros in sorting and processing stations at the Texplast factory in Wolfen.
Initially, the focus will be on empty PET packaging, which are predominantly food and beverage bottles and empty cleaning product bottles. Processing the pressed transparent packaging will allow it to be recycled again and integrated into the PET bottle recycling loop. The colored portion will be processed into flakes for the production of PET strapping.
For other plastic packaging materials, such as bubble wrap or plastic films, an application may be found in the future. Although technically more demanding, it is not impossible, and new techniques are already under development.
