PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2019

8 NEWS PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 06/19 www.petpla.net Alba Group: Memorandum of Understanding signed in Tokyo The Alba Group, a leading recycling and environmental services and raw materials provider based in Berlin, Ger- many, is expanding its engagement in Asia. In Tokyo, as part of the Japan trip of the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, the company signed a cooperation agreement for the construction and operation of a recycling plant for PET. It is the first Alba plant on Japanese soil. Together with its local partner, the private waste man- agement company SEIU Japan Ltd., Co., the company will set up the plant in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The plant for the production of PET flakes and PET pellets will have a capacity of 35,000 t/a and will come into operation in 2020. These products will then be processed into recycled material for the plastic-processing industry. www.alba.info Logoplaste and Tomlinsons announce collaboration in Wrexham, UK Logoplaste and Tomlinsons announced a long term col- laboration in Wrexham, UK. Tomlinsons, one of the UK’s larg- est family owned dairies, has completed a sale of its bottle blow moulding production facility to Logoplaste, a leading global designer and manufacturer of value-added rigid plas- tic packaging solutions to a wide range of blue-chip clients. The sale is intended to play to the strengths of both busi- nesses, with Tomlinsons being able to focus on growing its dairy operations, and Logoplaste bringing its expertise in rigid plastic packaging to the Wrexham bottling plant. The sale will involve the transfer of 30 bottling plant employees from Tomlinsons to Logoplaste. www.logoplaste.com Largest single investment in the history of Werner & Mertz Werner &Mertz has invested 30 million euro in its new production building in Rheinallee - the largest single investment in the history of the German Mainz-based cleaning products company. Sustainable cleaning products from the company are in greater demand than ever: From 2016 to 2018, revenue for the Frosch brand grew by 21 percent and its market share by 14 percent. In 2018 total revenue for the entire Werner & Mertz Group was 399 million euro. With the investment in the new production center, Werner & Mertz can keep up with the growing demands. One of the first new production lines valued at 4.5 million euro is already in operation. In the final expansion stage, Frosch production can be doubled. Packaging manufacturer Alpla, which for years has produced the transparent Frosch bottles of 100 percent recycled plastic on the Werner & Mertz premises, is also moving into the new building. In the future the packaging company won’t be manufacturing on site, but rather inhouse. “With the construction of the new production center, we are cre- ating the world’s largest recyclate bottle production,” said Werner & Mertz owner Reinhard Schneider. To date, 266 million PET bottles of 100 percent recycled plastic from post-consumer waste collec- tion have been manufactured and filled in Mainz (as of May 2019). Gunther Lehner, owner of Alpla Werke Alwin Lehner GmbH & Co. KG, said, “We are very pleased about the many years of close cooperation with Werner & Mertz. For ultra-modern and efficient packaging manufacturing in the new production center, we have invested 13 million euro.” Sustainability had high priority in the new construction, using the greatest amount of recycled concrete that is legally permitted. Two-thirds of the 4,000-square-meter rooftop area is covered by 455 photovoltaic modules which supply power for the cooling units. Heat recovery and district heating, among other things, are used to heat the building. The entire building is equipped with LED lighting which is controlled in restrooms, hallways and changing rooms by presence sensors. The social factors of sustainability were also taken into consid- eration in the construction of the production building. The offices are identical to that of the LEED Platinum-certified main adminis- tration building, including sustainable office equipment and free use of coffee makers and water dispensers. The good quality of continuously supplied fresh air is assured by the high volume flows. Employees can make use of the 26 new parking spaces for e-cars with charging stations right next to the building. AJapanese garden in the rooftop courtyard, ground cover on the roof and greenery on the north wall provide a green view and contribute to biodiversity. www.werner-mertz.de Celebrating the official opening of the new production building (from left): Mayor of Mainz Michael Ebling; Reinhard Schneider, owner of Werner & Mertz; Rhineland-Palatinate Minister Presi- dent Malu Dreyer; Federal Chairman of Bündnis 90/die Grünen Robert Habeck; and Günther Lehner, owner of Alpla Werke Alwin Lehner GmbH & Co KG WikiPETia .info More than 300 companies at