With the new Palurec GmbH recycling plant in Hürth near Cologne, plastic and aluminium components can be recycled from beverage cartons for the first time. Tetra Pak, SIG Combibloc and Elopak have invested eight million euros in the new plant. The recyclability will increase from the current level of around 75 per cent to well over 90 per cent.
The manufacturers of beverage cartons have thus taken a decisive step in recovering the plastic and aluminium content of their packaging. The beverage carton achieves a high recyclability of well over 90 per cent, explained Palurec Managing Director Andreas Henn at a virtual event. It is the first plant of its kind in Germany that marketable recyclates from this material mixture using a mechanical-physical process is produced. Only water is used as a release agent; solvents are not used. The three manufacturers Tetra Pak GmbH, SIG Combibloc GmbH and Elopak GmbH have invested eight million euros in the 18,000 tonne plant near Cologne invested.
„With Palurec, we have reached a major milestone in the recovery of plastic and aluminium from beverage carton packaging. This is a decisive step towards a low-carbon circular economy and part of our sustainability strategy on the way to becoming the most sustainable food packaging in the world.” Stephan KarlManaging Director of Tetra Pak DACH
Palurec system with innovative system concept
With the new Palurec system, beverage carton manufacturers are now able to, over 50 percent of the plastic and aluminium components from beverage cartons produced in Germany into marketable secondary raw materials for a wide range of industrial applications. Until now, this plastic-aluminium mix has been used in the cement industry as a low-emission secondary fuel. This mainly involves around thin PE aluminium foils and HDPE closures. In addition, there are foreign materials that could not be completely separated during the automatic sorting of the yellow bags and bins and pose particular challenges for recycling technology. The aim was therefore to work with efficient and proven technologies and deliberately avoid highly sophisticated processes, says Henn: „In our system concept, we can draw on successfully tried and tested units from the plastics processing industry.“
Don't leave recycling exclusively to others
When asked what prompted Tetra Pak, SIG Combibloc and Elopak to get involved in recycling with their own plant, the chairman of the industry association FKN, Robert Kummer, replied: „Over the last 25 years, there have been several companies from the recycling industry that have tried their hand at it. After a while, however, they dropped out again. Technical, but above all economic reasons played a role in this.
At the moment, it can also be observed that although many companies have already shifted into gear when it comes to plastics recycling, they are still on the clutch due to the uncertain market situation: „However, the European Green Deal and the Packaging Act are already having an impact. The demand for recyclates is growing. In this respect, we are convinced that the decision we made three years ago to not leave the recycling of our packaging exclusively to others, but to take responsibility ourselves, was the right one,“ says Kummer.
The new recycling plant would also significantly improve the carbon footprint of beverage cartons compared to glass and plastic bottles. According to a study by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (ifeu), milk cartons already have 84 per cent less impact on the climate than disposable PET bottles and 70 per cent less than disposable glass bottles.
[infotext icon]The Palurec GmbH was founded in December 2017. The sole shareholder is the Fachverband Kartonverpackungen für flüssige Nahrungsmittel e.V. (FKN) with headquarters in Berlin. The companies Elopak GmbH (Mannheim), SIG Combibloc GmbH (Linnich) and Tetra Pak GmbH (Hochheim am Main) are members of the association. These companies produce around 95 per cent of all beverage cartons sold in Germany and have played a key role in setting up and developing the recycling infrastructure for used beverage cartons since the launch of the Dual System[/infotext].SourceFKN : FKN
