By creating the planned PET Recycling Team Targu Mures joint venture, ALPLA and companies Ecohelp SRL (Romania) and United Polymer Trading AG (Switzerland) are each investing equally in the installation of an extrusion line to recycle post-consumer PET bottles at the Romanian partner’s site. They aim to produce 15,000 tonnes of food-grade post-consumer recycled PET (rPET) each year. The rPET granulate will then be used to manufacture new preforms and bottles, with an intention to strengthen the local materials cycle within the Central and South-Eastern Europe region.
Three partners, three different areas of expertise
The three partners contribute different areas of expertise to the joint venture. While ALPLA acts as a recycling specialist and a preform and bottle manufacturer, Ecohelp supplies base material in the form of PET flakes that will go through an extrusion process to produce high-grade rPET granules. UPT in turn co-owns the rPET Upcycling facility Cumapol Emmen in The Netherlands and specialises in trading plastics and recycled material. The entire amount being invested in the plant and the associated building and infrastructure comes to roughly €7.5 million. The plant expansion will create 15 new jobs at the site in Targu Mures.