ALPLA Group (Hard, Austria) is building a plant in Mexico for recycling high-density polyethylene (HDPE). It is planned to produce 15,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr) of post-consumer recycled material.
ALPLA has acquired a property in Toluca, capital city of the State of México in the country’s center. 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 m.t. 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, neighboring countries in Central America and the United States.
Rendering of the new recycling plant for HDPE in Toluca, Mexico (Source: ALPLA)
By making this investment, ALPLA is realizing 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.’
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 m.t. of food-grade recycled material from post-consumer PET each year. ALPLA is seeking to utilize 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.