— By Plasteurope.com staff — 

As expected, PET to PET Recycling Austria (Müllendorf; www.pet2pet.at) significantly increased its recycling volumes in the first half of 2025. According to the company, a total of 18,403 t of PET beverage bottles were recycled – a 14.5% rise compared with the same period in 2024 (16,071 t).

In the full year 2024, the firm had processed 31,354 t of PET bottles, representing a 2.8% decline. A key factor behind the recent positive development is the introduction of a deposit return scheme for single-use PET bottles and cans, which has been in effect across Austria since 1 January 2025. According to the Austria-based recycler, this has not only increased collection volumes but also improved the quality of the recyclate; incorrect disposals and contaminants from other plastic packaging have become noticeably rarer, the company reports.

However, the overall market environment remains challenging, as secondary raw materials are still significantly more expensive than virgin plastics – a factor that continues to hinder the development of a functioning circular economy, said managing director Christian Strasser. Co-managing director Thomas Billes added, “As a recycling company operating in Austria, we are increasingly facing competition from other parts of Europe, where environmental standards and working conditions are widely known to fall short of EU norms. This too is distorting the market.”

Related: Cost pressure from low-priced virgin material / Slump in PET recycling volumes

To prepare for rising volumes, PET to PET made targeted investments in the first half of 2025. At the Müllendorf, Austria, facility, new systems have been installed to detect and remove metallic contaminants such as beverage cans. The company did not disclose the amount invested.

Looking ahead to the second half of the year, the PET to PET consortium – which includes Austrian beverage producers Coca-Cola HBC Austria, Egger, Rauch, S. Spitz, and Vöslauer Mineralwasser – plans to install a new 140 m³ silo to provide additional interim storage capacity for recyclates. Part of the existing storage area is also set to be covered to enable an expansion of the site’s photovoltaic system. The existing 1.2 MWp installation is to be extended by a further 250 kWp.

At the PET to PET plant, incoming bottles are first visually inspected and sorted by hand, then shredded into flakes and washed. Two processing lines are used to produce either PET flakes or food-grade PET granulate.