ALPLA UK to focus on regional PET recyclate
Cooperation with British waste management company Biffa will boost local circular economy
Hard, 10 March 2021 – ALPLA UK, a subsidiary of the ALPLA Group, a leading plastic packaging company, will henceforth be cooperating with the British waste management company Biffa. With this collaboration, ALPLA will increase the proportion of British recyclate used in the United Kingdom to manufacture packaging for home care products.
From May, ALPLA UK will source food-grade polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) plastic pellets from the Biffa recycling plant in Seaham, County Durham. The recyclate will be used for the manufacture of home care packaging. As such, the amount of recycled plastic used in day-to-day household products such as washing-up liquid and cleaning product bottles will increase.
The partnership will promote a local circular economy for plastics in the United Kingdom. The collection and recycling of plastic waste help conserve natural resources and protect the environment.
Major investments in the circular economy
In February, the ALPLA Group announced that it would be investing up to EUR 250 million in globalising its recycling activities between now and 2025 in order to close the materials cycle in as many regions as possible.
‘The collaboration with Biffa goes along with our aim to push worldwide closed-loop systems on a local level. This approach guarantees the highest possible collection rates, recyclability, and quality of the materials. It also reduces the logistical effort related to our packaging solutions. This helps us to achieve the overall objective of reducing CO2 emissions and actively bringing the circular economy forward,’ says Tasos Pourloukakis, UK Country Managing Director at ALPLA Group.
Biffa invested 27.5 million pounds in the plastics recycling plant which opened in Seaham in 2020 and can process the equivalent of 1.3 billion bottles a year. The company has set itself the ambitious goal to quadruple its plastics recycling capacity by 2030.
‘Biffa is a true pioneer in closed-loop recycling, turning waste plastic into materials which are a substitute for virgin plastic. Our partnership with ALPLA will contribute to our strategic ambition of a more sustainable future built around a circular economy and we’re looking forward to continuing to work with the team to achieve this,’ says Chris Hanlon, Commercial Director at Biffa Polymers.
About ALPLA Group
ALPLA is one of the leading companies involved in plastic packaging. Around 21,600 employees worldwide produce custom-made packaging systems, bottles, caps and moulded parts at 178 sites across 45 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. Other projects are being realised elsewhere around the world.
www.alpla.com
About Biffa
Biffa has been at the forefront of the UK’s waste industry for over a hundred years, with operations that span the entire breadth of the waste management process including collection, recycling, treatment, disposal and energy generation. We exist to change the way people think about waste; to help people see the opportunities that exist when we manage our waste in the right way, and to make that happen. We understand the vital role we must play in helping the UK to address the climate emergency and deliver sustainable growth. This involves an ambitious investment programme in green economy infrastructure and low carbon collections, alongside an ongoing commitment to sector leadership in the health, safety and wellbeing of our people. Biffa is a Great British company. In FY20, the Group's total revenue was £1,102.8m and its Underlying EBITDA was £174.0m. We have been listed on the London Stock Exchange since October 2016 under the ticker "BIFF". In March 2020, Biffa entered the FTSE-250.
www.biffa.co.uk/investors
Enquiry information for editorial
ALPLA, Erik Nielsen (Senior Communications Manager), tel.: +43 (0)5574 6021 701, email: erik.nielsen@alpla.com
Pzwei. Pressearbeit, Werner F. Sommer, tel.: +43 (0)699 1025 4817, email: werner.sommer@pzwei.at