Alpla to install €5m extrusion system for rPET at Italian site

Austrian packaging manufacturer Alpla Group has announced that it is investing more than €5 million in an extrusion system for rPET at its Anagni site in Italy.

The extrusion system will be used for food-grade recycled PET (rPET) made of used PET bottles and will be installed at its Anagni site in central Italy, home to one of the company’s most important preform production plants.

According to Alpla, the system will have the capacity to process 15,000 tonnes of rPET a year and will promote the bottle-to-bottle cycle.

The plant processes around 50,000 tonnes of PET a year, of which only a very small proportion is currently recycled material. However, following the investment, a substantial portion will be supplied in the form of recycled material, giving customers the option of sourcing preforms made partly or entirely of rPET.

“We will buy in PET flakes made from used household packaging from local recyclers, process them into food-grade rPET and then use this at the site for preforms,” said Fabio Mazzarella, plant manager in Anagni.

The Anagni site currently has a workforce of 91, but ten new jobs will be created as a result of the investment. The system is expected to be operational in the second half of 2021.

Georg Lässer, head of corporate recycling at Alpla, added: “We want to promote the bottle-to-bottle cycle and avoid downcycling. In addition, we would like to boost local recycling solutions in a region that does not have the necessary infrastructure for the bottle loop up to now.

“But with this measure, we are ensuring that we can offer our customers optimum support with realising new specifications and targets in the long term too and that we can offer them top-quality recycled materials.”

Last September, Alpla announced that it was building a plant in Mexico for recycling high-density polyethylene (HDPE).