ALPLA Group announced it is building a plant in Mexico for recycling high-density polyethylene (HDPE). The new facility, which is expected to produce 15,000 tonnes of post-consumer recycled material each year, is located in Toluca, capital city of the State of México.

The Austrian packaging manufacturer had moved into the field of HDPE recycling with the acquisition of two recycling plants in Spain in November 2019.

The construction of the recycling plant will commence in autumn 2020, with its launch planned for the second half of 2021. The amount invested is about 15 million euros and 65 jobs will be created, said ALPLA.

The company will be run as a 100-per-cent subsidiary, and the facility will have an annual capacity of 15,000 tonnes 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, neighbouring countries in Central America and the United States.

ALPLA believes by making this investment, it is realising its global objectives for the New Plastics Economy (an initiative of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation).

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.”