German recycling service provider Remondis (Lünen; www.remondis.de) and Dutch recycler Morssinkhof Plastics (Lichtenvoorde; www.morssinkhofplastics.nl) have set up a joint venture to market rPET and create “closed loops” for beverage packaging materials. Both partners have a 50% share in More PET, based in Essen / Germany. Approval from the antitrust authorities is pending.

Based on the European Commission’s target to incorporate a higher recyclate content in PET beverage bottles – 25% by 2025 – the two family-run companies are investing in new processing capacities. A Remondis spokesperson told Plasteurope.com that joint operation of a processing plant was currently not planned.

In August 2020, Remondis will be commissioning in Zeitz / Germany another expansion stage of its recycling system for PET bottles from the deposit system for non-refillable bottles. The recycling lines there had originally been designed by the now insolvent Plastic Recycling Zeitz (PRZ) for a capacity of around 45,000 t/y to process PET bottles into clear and coloured flakes. Another PET recycling plant with a capacity of up to 20,000 t/y is operated in Hamburg.

At the former site of automotive supplier Fehrer Automotive in Markranstädt near Leipzig / Germany, Morssinkhof is currently building a new PET processing plant to produce 40,000 t/y of recyclate using the so-called “Mopet” process as of 2021 (see Plasteurope.com of 23.07.2019).

Morssinkhof is also the leading partner of a Dutch recycling consortium that is marketing the “CuRe” recycling process – a partial depolymerisation process that can be used to convert opaque PET, which is difficult to recycle, into food-grade material. The beverage multinational Coca-Cola has recently invested in the recycling start-up (see Plasteurope.com of 23.07.2020).