APK’s (Merseburg / Germany; www.apk-ag.de) first commercial facility for its "Newcycling" process will soon be operational. A company spokesperson told Plasteurope.com that APK intends to put onstream an 8,000 t/y recycling line at its site in Merseburg before the end of Q1 2019. As a result, between 10 and 20 new jobs will be created. The company did not disclose any information about the size of the investment.

The capacity figure relates to the input of multi-layer PE and PA films, which the facility will process into high-quality, clean-grade recyclate using a solvent-based process. The recyclate can be reused for the production of plastic packaging.

The German recycler’s second plant is currently in the planning stage. According to a company spokesperson, the site will “most likely” focus on recycling post-consumer waste into high-quality, clean-grade PE and PP resin.

In mid-2018, APK partnered with chemical and consumer goods giant Henkel (Düsseldorf / Germany; www.henkel.com), packaging group Mondi (Vienna / Austria; www.mondigroup.com) and polymer producer Borealis (Vienna; www.borealisgroup.com) to explore requirements for the operation of a commercial facility. The companies produced a Henkel stand-up pouch made mainly of LDPE recovered through the Newcycling process – see Plasteurope.com of 28.06.2018.

Apart from the Newcycling facility, APK has over 12,000 t/y of processing capacity for mechanical recycling and a workforce of around 100.