SOUTH AFRICA – Austrian packaging solution provider ALPLA has invested US$65.59 million (€60m) in a new polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling plant in Ballito, in the South African province of KwaZulu Natal.
Situated near Durban, the Ballito plant will be constructed on a 90,000m² site. The construction is expected to start in the summer of 2023 and completion is planned for autumn next year.
The plant will mark ALPLA’s entry into the African recycling market and is said to be the first investment in a food-grade PET recycling facility in KwaZulu Natal province.
Initially, the plant will have an output of 35,000 tonnes of recycled PET material. In future, it will recycle around 60,000 tonnes of PET bottles annually to produce 35,000 tonnes of mechanically recycled rPET flakes and pellets.
Philipp Lehner Alpla’s CEO said: “Our goal is a bottle-to-bottle cycle at the location of our activities.
“In this way, as a recycler and producer, we can secure the supply of safe, affordable and [environmentally] sustainable packaging worldwide and at the same time promote awareness of the recyclable material.”
The Ballito site is expected to boost the annual production capacity of all ALPLA recycling companies and cooperations to around 238,000 tonnes for rPET (recycled PET) and 74,000 tonnes for rHDPE (recycled HDPE).
The packaging and recycling specialist is strengthening its commitment in southern Africa. After opening its new headquarters in Lanseria near Johannesburg in the autumn of 2022, the company is now announcing the construction of its first own recycling plant in the country.
Similarly, as in most other parts of the world, the market for high-quality products made from recycled materials is growing in South Africa.
“This increasing demand is accompanied by the gradual expansion of nationwide collection systems,” says Alpla.
“Together with the producer responsibility organization Petco, who identified KwaZulu Natal as an opportunity for enterprise development and other key stakeholders, Alpla has been supporting the development of the collection value chain, the sensitization of society and the avoidance of landfills for years,” explains Mike Resnicek, Alpla’s finance and commercial director Africa, Middle East and Turkey, and director and member of the board of Petco.
Additionally, ALPLA has jointly decided to approach investment with a local partner for the realization of the recycling plant.
The packaging firm anticipates that the facility will generate around 100 new employment options in the future.
The growth of the regional collection system is also expected to generate more than 10,000 indirect jobs.
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