US plastics recycler MBA Polymers (Richmond, California; www.mbapolymers.com) has taken over a 16,000 m² site in Mauna, near Dresden / Germany, with effect from 19 July 2019. The site, operated by subsidiary MBA Polymers Germany, will be the group’s fifth facility to use its patented process for manufacturing recycled plastics. The company said the plant will make use of the growing quantities of electrical and electronic equipment waste (WEEE) both in Germany and in Europe to meet global demand for post-consumer plastics.

From January 2020 onwards, MBA said 17,500 t/y of WEEE will be processed at Mauna, where it will extract ABS, HIPS, polypropylene and polycarbonate/ABS from the waste and further separate and process the material into high-quality plastics. The company, which aims to expand its production activities in Germany, initially plans to hire 20 specialists in the areas of material flow and quality management.

German investment group Elephant Equity (Munich; www.elephantequity.com) took over MBA Polymers in 2017. MBA said Elephant Equity supports its ambition to develop, build and operate new production units in promising markets.

In 2017, MBA entered the Indian market, signing cooperation agreements with several of the country’s waste management companies. It is partnering with Green Elephant (Pune, Maharashtra / India; www.greenelephant.in) to build and operate a plant with an initial capacity of 50,000 t/y of plastics waste.

As well as Mauna, MBA operates facilities in Austria, China and the UK. These sites have a combined annual processing capacity of more than 150,000 t/y of waste.