ALPLA Group

ALPLA builds HDPE recy­cling plant in Mexico 

Launch planned for second half of 2021 – capa­city of 15,000 tonnes’ rHDPE annually

Hard, 17 Sep­tember 2020 – ALPLA Group, a global spe­cia­list for pack­a­ging solu­tions and recy­cling, con­ti­nues to pursue a stra­tegy of expan­ding its recy­cling acti­vi­ties world­wide. The family-owned enter­prise from Aus­tria is now buil­ding a plant in Mexico for recy­cling HDPE. It is planned to pro­duce 15,000 tonnes of post-consumer recy­cled mate­rial each year.

ALPLA has acquired a pro­perty in Toluca, capital city of the State of México in the country’s centre. Con­s­truc­tion of a state-of-the-art recy­cling plant will com­mence on it in autumn 2020, with its launch planned for the second half of 2021. The amount invested is roughly 15 mil­lion euros and 65 jobs will be created. The com­pany will be run as a 100-per-cent sub­si­diary of ALPLA, while the faci­lity will have an annual capa­city of 15,000 tonnes of HDPE recy­cled mate­rial for non-food appli­ca­tions, for example for pack­a­ging solu­tions for per­sonal care or house­hold clea­ning pro­ducts. The target mar­kets are pri­ma­rily Mexico, neigh­bou­ring count­ries in Cen­tral Ame­rica and the United States.

Enab­ling a cir­cular economy
By making this invest­ment, ALPLA is rea­li­sing its global objec­tives for the New Pla­s­tics Eco­nomy (an initia­tive of the Ellen Mac­Ar­thur Foun­da­tion). Secondly, the family-run com­pany is staying true to its regional stra­tegy, as Georg Lässer, Head of Recy­cling, explains, ‘ALPLA has been demons­t­ra­ting forward-looking action in the field of recy­cling for many years. We invest in regions where the demand for recy­cled mate­rial is not yet that high. In doing this, we give used pla­s­tics value and act as role models for the achie­ve­ment of the cir­cular eco­nomy.’ Carlos Torres, Mexico Regional Manager, adds, ‘This is how we gene­rate demand among coll­ec­tion com­pa­nies and sup­port the deve­lo­p­ment of the neces­sary infra­struc­ture. In addi­tion, we can offer our regional cus­to­mers the “cir­cu­la­rity” demanded of recy­clable materials.’

Many years’ expe­ri­ence in the region
ALPLA pos­s­esses many years of expe­ri­ence in recy­cling post-consumer PET in Mexico. The first bottle-to-bottle recy­cling plant in Latin Ame­rica com­menced ope­ra­tion back in 2005 with Indus­tria Mexi­cana de Reci­c­laje (IMER). IMER is a joint ven­ture bet­ween ALPLA México, Coca-Cola México and Coca-Cola Femsa. By joi­ning forces, the part­ners have estab­lished the infra­struc­ture for coll­ec­ting and recy­cling used PET beverage bot­tles over the last 15 years. They pro­duce almost 15,000 tonnes of food-grade recy­cled mate­rial from post-consumer PET each year. ALPLA is see­king to uti­lise this net­work and vast expe­ri­ence in its deve­lo­p­ment of HDPE recy­cling within the region.

ALPLA announced its acqui­si­tion of two recy­cling plants in Spain in November 2019, taking its first step in the field of HDPE recycling.

More infor­ma­tion about the com­pany: www.alpla.com

About ALPLA Group:
ALPLA is one of the leading companies involved in plastic packaging. Around 20,800 employees worldwide produce custom-made packaging systems, bottles, caps and moulded parts at its 181 sites across 46 countries. The high-quality packaging is used in a wide range of areas, including for food and drinks, cosmetics and care products, household detergents, washing and cleaning agents, pharmaceutical products, engine oils and lubricants.
ALPLA operates its own recycling plants for PET and HDPE in Austria, Poland and Spain, and in the form of joint ventures in Mexico and Germany. By signing the New Plastics Economy’s Global Commitment in October 2018, ALPLA pledged to achieve certain goals by 2025: all packaging solutions are to be fully recyclable and the volume of recycled materials is to increase to 25 per cent of the total materials used. A sum of 50 million euros has been earmarked for ALPLA’s expansion of its recycling activities.

Cap­tions:
ALPLA-Recycling-Mexiko.jpg: Ren­de­ring of the new recy­cling plant for HDPE in Toluca, Mexico.

Copy­right: ALPLA. Reprin­ting free of charge for reporting on ALPLA. Photo credit required.

 

Enquiry infor­ma­tion for editorial:
ALPLA, Alex­andra Dittrich (PR & Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions), tel.: +43 (0)5574 6021 083, email: alexandra.dittrich@alpla.com
Pzwei. Pres­se­ar­beit, Werner F. Sommer, tel.: +43 (0)699 1025 4817, email: werner.sommer@pzwei.at