Alpla (Hard / Austria; www.alpla.com) is continuing its shopping spree in Europe: the plastic packaging manufacturer has taken over German reclaim firm BTB PET-Recycling (Bad Salzuflen). No financial details were disclosed.

With this acquisition, Alpla is investing in the expansion of its recycling circuit in the region and gaining further access to German bottle-to-bottle recycling. BTB PET-Recycling is said to process around 20,000 t/y of used PET beverage bottles from the German deposit-return system into food-grade rPET granulate. This is mainly used to produce preforms for PET bottles, including those for beverages. The workforce of about 35 employees are to be taken on by Alpla.

Only recently, Alpla and partners announced the establishment of joint venture, PET Recycling Team Targu Mures, for recycling post-consumer PET bottles in Romania (see Plasteurope.com of 21.09.2021); 15,000 t of rPET is to be produced annually. Earlier this year, Alpla started its cooperation with British waste management company Biffa (High Wycombe; www.biffa.co.uk), and obtains food-grade rPET granulate from Biffa’s recycling plant in Seaham (see Plasteurope.com of 17.03.2021).

At the beginning of 2021, the packaging group, which reported turnover of EUR 3.7 bn in 2020, announced that it would invest an average of EUR 50m every year in the further expansion of recycling activities until 2025 (see Plasteurope.com of 24.02.2021). In total, the capacity of Alpla’s recycling companies, joint ventures and cooperations is reportedly around 130,000 t/y for PET and 60,000 t/y for polyethylene.