German extrusion and protective film manufacturer Polifilm (Cologne; www.polifilm.com) said it is bundling its recycling activities in a separate corporate unit. Policycle, newly founded on 1 January 2023 and headed by group CEO Christian Runkel, is now the fourth corporate division alongside Extrusion, Protection, and Trading.

In addition to expanding existing recycling capacities and adding wet recycling technologies to its dry recycling capabilities, Policycle is focusing on setting up material cycles for polyethylene-based films.

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Specifically, new production sections are planned at the Weißandt-Gölzau site. “The investments will initially be made in Europe, but in the medium term also in the US and Asia,” a company spokesperson told Plasteurope.com, without providing further details. The spokesperson noted that Polifilm is aiming for a recyclate quota of 30% across all product groups.

“The ideal image of the future is: take our customers’ old films, recycle them, and ideally return the recovered material to the same or a similar high-quality film,” said Runkel, adding that the first pilot projects in which customer waste is recycled into film products for customers are already underway. This includes pilot projects for the hard-to-recycle protective films of the Protection Division, where waste from adhesive-coated protective films, for example, is in reprocessed into the same type of film – “and with a share of up to 30%,” as Runkel points out.

Polifilm has eleven production facilities in seven countries, and an equal number of sales offices. The company’s workforce comprises more than 1,600 employees. In 2021, Polifilm achieved a turnover of EUR 662 mn, compared to EUR 48 mn in 2020. Publication of the figures for 2022 is expected at the end of July.