The Alpla Group has opened a new plant for HDPE plastic recycling in Toluca, Mexico, taking a further step towards closing material loops in as many regions as possible. At the same time, the company is announcing a doubling of annual production to 30,000 tonnes of recycled pellets from the second half of 2022.
In Toluca, the capital of the central Mexican state of México, Alpla celebrated the opening of its new state-of-the-art recycling plant for HDPE (high-density polyethylene) plastic on 10 November. It took just over a year from the announcement of the construction in September 2020 to completion. The Investment totalled around 20 million euros. The plant, which is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Alpla around 70 new jobs have been created.
The plant is currently designed for an annual capacity of 15,000 tonnes of recycled HDPE (rHDPE) in granulate form. This regranulate is Mainly for the production of packaging in the non-food sector used, for example, for personal care products or household cleaners. The demand for recycled materials is so high in Mexico and Central America that the majority of the output will be used regionally.
Alpla increases capacity to 30,000 tonnes
With the commissioning of the new recycling plant, the company is following its strategic direction of investing with foresight in regions in which the Demand for recycled material has a lot of growth potential.
„We are delighted to be making an important contribution to the implementation of a local circular economy in Mexico with the new site. Our actions give used plastic bottles a value and promote the collection and development of the necessary infrastructure in the region.“ Georg Lässer, Head of Corporate Recycling
The success of this strategy is reflected in the fact that an increase in the recycling plant's annual production to 30,000 tonnes can already be announced from the second half of 2022. Carlos Torres, Regional Manager Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, explains: „We are seeing the recycling market gain momentum and are taking our commitment to sustainability one step further. The demand for post-consumer recycled material from our customers in the region is increasing. This puts us in a position to start increasing our production of rHDPE in Toluca right now.“
Experience with PET recycling in the region
In Mexico Alpla has many years of experience in recycling post-consumer PET. The first bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in Latin America, Industria Mexicana de Reciclaje (IMER), was launched back in 2005. IMER is a Joint venture between Alpla México, Coca-Cola México and Coca-Cola Femsa. Over the past 15 years, the partners have joined forces to establish the infrastructure for collecting and recycling used PET drinks bottles. Every year, almost 15,000 tonnes of food-grade flakes are produced from post-consumer PET.
Expansion of recycling activities
At the beginning of 2021, the Group announced that it would invest an average of €50 million per year in the further expansion of its recycling activities until 2025. The plan is primarily the internationalisation of measures for high-quality recyclates, to close recycling loops in as many regions as possible. In total, the annual capacity of the Alpla recycling companies, joint ventures and cooperations amounts to around 130,000 tonnes for PET and 60,000 tonnes for PE.
Source: Alpla
