Werner & Mertz and Alpla are already working together to promote the processing and recycling of recyclate from the Yellow Bag, and now the joint cooperation is to be expanded even further. To this end, long-time Alpla CEO Günther Lehner and his son, the new CEO Philipp Lehner, met with Werner & Mertz owner Reinhard Schneider at the Mainz site.
In January, Philipp Lehner took over the CEO position at Alpla from his father Günther Lehner and is now visiting the most important partners of the family-run packaging specialist together with him. These include the Mainz-based detergent company Werner & Mertz, which has been working with Alpla entered into a cooperation as part of the Recyclate Initiative back in 2012 in order to promote the high-quality processing and recycling of recyclate from the Yellow Bag together with other partners.
The first bottles made from 100 per cent used plastic with a 20 per cent share from the Yellow Bag source were successfully launched on the market back in 2014. share could even be increased to 50 per cent - unique in the industry. Werner & Mertz is now regarded as a best-practice example of sustainable packaging and Alpla has become the the world's largest manufacturer of bottles made from recyclate from the Yellow Bag ascended.
„As an owner-managed family business, we both have in common that we can focus on long-term initiatives independently of shareholder values and quarterly reports and in this way promote a holistic and sustainable circular economy. I am delighted to be continuing on this path together with Philipp Lehner.“ Reinhard Schneider, owner Werner & Mertz.
Philipp Lehner „Our long-standing collaboration on the use of recycled plastics has led to packaging solutions that are exemplary in terms of the Establishment of closed product cycles from bottle to bottle. I personally look forward to continuing to drive forward our companies“ recycling initiative together in the future and to being a pioneer in this field."
Werner & Mertz and Alpla set a world record together
The joint success story began back in 1995, when Alpla started producing packaging for Werner & Mertz on the company premises in Ingelheimer Aue. In 2019, on-site production became in-house production: Reinhard Schneider and Günther Lehner inaugurated the new production centre, which houses the world's largest 100% recycled bottle production facility on the ground floor - Alpla has been producing the bottles here ever since, which are then filled directly on the floor above with Frosch brand recipes. This saves immense transport distances and thus minimises CO2 emissions twice over. To date, over 489 million bottles have already been produced from 100 per cent post-consumer recyclate - a world record!
Joint training at the Mainz site in future
In future, however, the two companies not only want to work closely together at the site, but also Going joint ways in the area of vocational training. ALPLA would like to train mechatronics technicians at the Mainz site starting next year and is seeking a training partnership with Werner & Mertz. „We would be very pleased about close cooperation between our two companies in the training programme for mechatronics technicians, because that way we can learn even more from each other, improve our content, create networks and make even better use of interfaces. It would be a Win-win situation for both sides“ emphasises Werner & Mertz trainer Björn Frederik Knack.
In addition, the second production site of Werner & Mertz in Hallein, Austria, for the future our own bottle production from the Austrian company Alpla.
[infotext icon]Alpla is one of the world's leading companies for plastic packaging. Around 21,600 employees produce customised packaging systems, bottles, closures and injection moulded parts at 178 locations in 45 countries worldwide. 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. [/infotext]Source: Werner & Mertz
