PET to PET Recycling Österreich GmbH can look back on its most successful year so far: in 2019, more than 26,300 t of PET material - equivalent to around 1.1 billion PET bottles - were used to obtain valuable secondary raw material for new PET containers. This was a further increase of 3% compared to 2018.
Austria's beverage industry already assumed responsibility in the sense of environmental and climate protection in 2007 and, with the commissioning of PET to PET Recycling Österreich GmbH, ensured a complete and resource-saving recycling of PET bottles in Austria. "PET to PET is one of the world's most modern plants in the field of PET recycling, ongoing process optimization and continuous capacity expansion are among our constant companions," explains DI Christian Strasser, managing director of PET to PET. "This enabled us to increase our performance again in 2019 and achieve a new, very gratifying record result."
Great demand, further expansion
In the past year, the washing system for PET flakes was completely overhauled and brought up to the latest technological standards. On the one hand, this further increased the quality of the recyclate and, on the other hand, it significantly increased the throughput. “This is extremely important for us, especially in view of the growing demand. After all, Austria's beverage manufacturers are constantly increasing the proportion of recyclate in new PET bottles, some of which are already 100% recycled, ”explains Strasser.
In 2020, capacities will be expanded again with the expansion of the manipulation areas and the expansion of the granulation plant.
Collective call: Dispose of each PET bottle correctly
The morale among Austrians is already very high. Three out of four PET bottles currently end up in the correct waste or recycling bin and are recycled in an environmentally friendly manner. But there is still room for improvement. “We continue to ask the population for their full support so that we can really recycle all used PET bottles. We want every PET bottle back. This is the only way we can keep the extremely high-quality packaging material polyethylene terephthalate - PET for short - in the cycle for as long as possible and conserve resources in the interest of future generations, ”said Strasser with an appeal to the population.
Turn old into new - the bottle-to-bottle cycle
In PET to PET, the delivered PET bottles are - after manual inspection and sorting - crushed into flakes in a mill and then washed. After that, the most modern processing methods are used in Müllendorf. In two different processing lines, either PET flakes or PET granules are produced - each of the highest food-grade quality. Depending on the specific production requirements and in order to achieve the highest possible recyclate content, both types of recyclate are used in the production of new PET beverage bottles. "We have been proud to make a significant contribution to Austria's circular economy with our daily work for over ten years," concludes Strasser.
