Anja Siegesmund leaves the BDE
Change of leadership at the BDE: Executive President Anja Siegesmund hands over her office to Vice President Matthias Harms on 31 January 2026.
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The Merseburg-based company APK AG has developed a process for producing a recyclate that can be processed into a transparent film. Until now, products made from recyclate have usually been characterised by a dark grey tone. According to the company, the values of the film are close to those of virgin material.
Recovering pure plastic recyclates from mixed consumer waste is the crowning glory for any recycling company. „2021 was a milestone year for the APK AG. We were able to prove it, that our Newcycling technology can successfully recycle plastic waste from households on an industrial scale. We have fully achieved our ambitious goals in terms of scaling and decolourisation,“ explains Klaus Wohnig, CEO of APK AG.
Values as for new goods
Over the course of 2021, APK realised a production campaign on an industrial scale in several phases at the Merseburg site. The starting materials for the “post-consumer new recycling campaign“ were Film waste from household collection. In an initial phase, excellent results have already been achieved in terms of problem-free recyclability, yield and mechanical values of the recyclate. With a view to decolourisation, the process parameters were fine-tuned in an intermediate laboratory phase.
The modified parameters were successfully implemented in the second phase of the campaign in November 2021 by the development team led by Hagen Hanel, Head of APK's Plastics Recycling Innovation Centre. “Our hard work has paid off in full,“ explains Jürgen Flesch, the APK board member responsible for production and technology. „We were able to obtain a light-coloured LDPE recyclate from mixed, flexible household waste, which can then be was processed into a film without any problems.“ The analysis of the material obtained showed excellent colour and transparency values. „The L-value of our ‚campaign film‘ is close to that of films made from virgin material, explains Jürgen Flesch.
Source: APK AG
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