Alpla joins cross-industry consortium for chemical recycling
Alpla Group, an international plastic packaging and recycling specialist, joins a new consortium for chemical recycling of PET. The consortium intends to speed up the commercialisation of enhanced recycling technology, BP Infinia, which turns opaque and difficult-to-recycle PET plastic waste into recycled feedstocks.
Leading companies operating across the polyester packaging value chain – including businesses involved in the manufacture, use, collection and recycling of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic packaging – announced they have formed a new consortium that aims to help to address the problem of plastic waste by accelerating the commercialisation of BP Infinia enhanced recycling technology.
The consortium intends to combine the capabilities and experience of its members – packaging and recycling specialist Alpla; food, drink and consumer goods producers Britvic, Danone and Unilever; waste management and recycling specialist Remondis; and energy and petrochemicals producer BP – to develop a new circular approach to dealing with PET plastic waste.
Georg Lässer, Head of Recycling at Alpla said: “Alpla is delighted to join this cross-functional project with partners from the entire value chain. It completes our intense activities besides mechanical recycling and focuses on post-industrial PET waste, difficult-to-recycle PET packaging and PET thermoform trays. With BP in the lead, we have a very strong and highly experienced partner that contributes with knowledge about virgin polyester production.’
The consortium members believe by joining forces they can speed up the commercialisation of the technology, infrastructure and demand needed to process billions of opaque and difficult-to-recycle PET bottles and food trays that are currently disposed of each year, including those that are difficult to recycle by current conventional recycling methods.
