PETnews 6 NEWS PETplanet Insider Vol. 24 No. 12/23 www.petpla.net Packaging specialist Alpla is investing in Morocco and planning expansion By acquiring a majority stake in the packaging company Atlantic Packaging and establishing a joint venture with the previous sole owner Diana Holding, theAlpla Group is expanding its presence in North Africa. In addition to PET preforms for the beverage industry for the regional markets in the Maghreb and for Western Africa, Alpla Morocco also produces plastic pallets by injection moulding and packaging films by extrusion at its modern plant in Tangier. Currently, the site employs 32 people. Alpla Morocco’s preform capacity has already been tripled in 2023 by two additional preform production lines. In the coming years, the company intends to increase the portfolio of the Moroccan site through further local activities, potentially including bottle and closure production. This initiative aims to establish the groundwork for growth and sustainable packaging solutions in the North Western African Region. In addition to its packaging subsidiary, Diana Holding is primarily active in the agro-industrial sector. Through this joint venture, the family-run group is claimed to strengthen its packaging division, which was founded in 2007, by capitalising on its substantial bottling experience garnered over nearly 50 years as the former Coca-Cola Company bottler in the northern region of Morocco. The approximately 12,000m2 plant in the free trade zone of Tangier is to be expanded in stages over the coming years. More than 20,000m2 of space is available for future expansion. In the first stage, Alpla Morocco has tripled its production capacity from the current 100 million preforms to around 300 million units per year. To this end, the company is investing in two new PET preform production lines. www.alpla.com Industry-NGO coalition calls on MEPs to support mandatory DRS in the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation Ahead of the plenary vote on the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), Natural Mineral Waters Europe (NMWE), The Minderoo Foundation, The Reloop Platform, Unesda Soft Drinks Europe and Zero Waste Europe call on Members of the European Parliament to reject any amendment aiming at turning the mandatory setting up of Deposit Refund Systems (DRS) into a voluntary measure. If adopted, the coalition says, those amendments would considerably reduce the level of ambition of the PPWR regarding the collection and recycling of beverage packaging. As recognised by the European Commission in its proposal, and by the ENVI Committee in its report adopted in October, DRS have a key role to play in achieving a circular economy for beverage packaging. European countries with long-established DRS usually report collection rates up to 95% and countries that have recently implemented DRS (Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Malta) already see high collection rates, going up to 90%. Given current collection performances in other parts of the EU, many member states are unlikely to achieve their EU collection targets without setting up a DRS. As an example, in France, where many advocate against a mandatory DRS, research shows a 60% collection rate for PET bottles, with limited ability to get to the 77% requested by the EU SUP Directive by 2025. The absence of well-performing collection schemes in every single member state would jeopardise the EU recycling and recycled content targets, so the concern. Indeed, DRS have delivered high collection rates for beverage packaging in countries where they are in place, they also have the benefit of providing high-quality food-grade recycled material in a clean single stream. Another important factor is the widespread consumer support for DRS. For example, surveys found 92% of the French public support its introduction, and in Slovakia, 83% support rose to 89% after the DRS was introduced. Removing this obligation would be accepting a status-quo where too much beverage packaging ends up being littered, not properly collected and therefore not recycled or reused as it should. www.naturalmineralwaterseurope.org Chinaplas 2024 returns to Shanghai Chinaplas, Asia’s premier plastics and rubber trade fair, is set to make a resounding return to Shanghai from April 23-26, 2024. Spanning all 15 exhibition halls of the National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC) in Hongqiao, Shanghai, PR China, the event will boast an exhibition area exceeding 380,000m2. Shanghai has unveiled a three-year (2023-2025) action plan to promote the high-quality development of the city’s manufacturing industries, contributing over one-fourth to the regional GDP. The prepackaged food market in China is projected to reach RMB 510 billion (USD 69.8 billion) in 2023, presenting substantial opportunities for the packaging market. Additionally, China’s medical device market, already the second-largest globally, is rapidly evolving, with active medical device market size expected to reach RMB 49.6 billion (USD 6.8 billion) by 2030. The burgeoning demand for exhibition booths at Chinaplas 2024 is claimed to reflect the renewed confidence in the plastics and rubber industries, according to the organisers Adsale. The exhibition area is set to expand by over 11% compared to the 2018 show in Shanghai, indicating a diverse range of exhibits and participants. With over 4,000 exhibitors, Chinaplas 2024 is poised to showcase breakthrough technologies and limitless potential for independent innovation. The online preregistration has commenced, and all visitors are urged to secure their entry dates in advance. As the “golden key” to technological innovation, the trade show is primed to drive the high-quality development of the plastics and rubber industries. www.chinaplasonline.com
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