29 August 2018
Plastic packaging is collected and sorted
by households and businesses.
This waste is collected by a waste disposal company
and then a sorting company sorts it into
individual ‘fractions’ or types.
In the case of plastics this might be
LDPE, HDPE, PVC, PET etc.
The different fractions are processed by recycling companies or,
in industry, incinerated.
Material recycling companies like Ecoplast ensure that
the sorted plastic waste is turned into new raw materials again.
These raw materials are then used to make new plastic products,
which may be wholly or partly composed of recycled material.
DETAILS
Borealis announces today that it has fully acquired
the Austrian plastics recycler
Ecoplast Kunststoffrecycling GmbH (“Ecoplast”).
Based in Wildon, Austria, Ecoplast processes
around 35,000 tonnes of post-consumer plastic waste
from households and industrial consumers every year,
turning them into
high-quality LDPE and HDPE recyclates,
primarily but not exclusively for the plastic film market.
The expectation of Borealis is that
the recycled PO market
will grow substantially by 2021,
which is the strategic rationale behind the acquisition.
The company has made PO recycling
a key element of its overall PO strategy
because of its potential to support
both growth and sustainability.
Borealis has been an industry frontrunner
in making polyolefins more circular.
In 2014, it began offering high-end compound solutions
to the automotive industry,
consisting of 25% and 50% post-consumer recycled content.
Borealis was also the first virgin PO producer
to explore the possibilities of mechanical recycling,
by acquiring one of Europe's largest producers
of post-consumer polyolefin recyclates
- mtm plastics GmbH and mtm compact GmbH – in July 2016.
Since then it has continued to invest
into the development of technology
and new products in the area of circular polyolefins.
Alfred Stern
Borealis Chief Executive
“Borealis recognises the increasing need for plastic recycling
and sees
the Circular Economy
as a business opportunity.
Borealis already has a long-term collaboration
with Ecoplast and this acquisition
is the next logical step in building
our mechanical recycling capabilities.
As an important complement to mtm in Germany,
Ecoplast will help us address critical sustainability challenges
and become a polyolefin recycling leader.
Eventually, we want to use our experience to develop
an effective blueprint for the end-of-use phases
for plastics that can be applied in other parts of the world,”
Lukas Intemann
Ecoplast’s Managing Director
“We are very happy that the transaction
with a strong and reliable partner
such as Borealis has been successfully concluded
and are looking forward to our common future activities
on the recycling market.
We have located potential synergies
in many operative and strategic areas,
especially in product quality R&D
and future applications of polyethylene-film-recyclates.
The combination of Ecoplast and Borealis
holds the potential to be groundbreaking for the market,”
For further information, please contact:
Patrick Laureys
Senior External Communications Manager
tel.: +43 1 22 400 726 (Vienna, Austria)
WWW.CHEMWINFO.COM BY KHUN PHICHAI
