Expanded PET recycling capacity in Luxembourg
Plastipak, a global leader in the design, manufacture and recycling of plastic containers has completed a major investment to expand its PET recycling capacity at its manufacturing site in Bascharage, Luxembourg. The original PET recycling facility in Luxembourg opened in 2008 and this new expansion increases annual production capacity by 136%. The installation and commissioning of the expansion took 12 months and has officially opened.
The recycling facility is co-located with Plastipak’s flagship preform and container manufacturing facility and converts washed rPET flakes originating from post-consumer bottles into food-grade recycled PET (rPET) pellets. The rPET produced at the site is converted into new preforms and containers produced at the Bascharage facility, which principally serves the German and Benelux food and beverage markets. The expansion complements Plastipak’s existing recycling facilities in France, UK and USA, and follows the recent announcement of a new recycling facility at its plant in Toledo, Spain.
Plastipak is a major convertor of recycled PET, which represents 27% of the total resin consumed in Plastipak’s European sites in 2020. At the site of this latest rPET expansion, Bascharage, the proportion of recycled resin consumed in 2020 was 45.3%.
