Austrian mineral water supplier Vöslauer Mineralwasser (Bad Vöslau; www.voeslauer.com) intends to use 100% recycled material for its PET bottle production by 2025. At the moment, its bottles contain an average of 70% rPET. The quantity of recycled material used is currently 3,300 t/y and this is set to rise to 5,500 t/y by 2025. The company will then be at one end of the PET recycling loop. At the other end are recyclers PET Recycling Team (PRT, Wöllersdorf / Austria; www.petrecyclingteam.com), a subsidiary of packaging producer Alpla (Hard / Austria; www.alpla.com).

PRT is feeling the impact of the plastics recycling boom through the sharply increasing prices for baled PET bottle goods. Single-colour bales currently cost EUR 600 each, for a weight of 600-700 kg, reports Peter Fröschl, plant manager in Wöllersdorf. The price has risen by almost 50% over the past two years – see Plasteurope.com of 02.10.2018. This is due first and foremost to the limited availability of post-consumer material, says Christian Hude, sales manager at PRT. "Interest is running at a higher level than ever before. It is becoming increasingly difficult for our purchasing department to obtain sufficient good-quality material," he added – see Plasteurope.com of 09.07.2018.

In Wöllersdorf, PRT produces around 21,000 t/y of food-grade rPET resin on three extruders, all of which are processed by Alpla. Its sister plant in Radomsko / Poland has a similarly high capacity, but part of the production there goes to third parties. Added to this come a further 20,000 t/y of resin and 15,000 t/y of flakes from partnerships with other companies and JVs with recycling company Texplast – see Plasteurope.com of 12.07.2018 – and Coca-Cola – see Plasteurope.com of 03.05.2012.

Packaging manufacturer Alpla produces PET preforms from just under 11,000 t of resin at its Steinbrückl / Austria site, accounting for 35% of the total capacity there. Altogether, 1 bn preforms are produced at the site each year. Some of these go to Vöslauer, which uses it to make bottles for its mineral water. In addition, the Steinbrückl plant has nine blow moulding lines producing 200m ready-made bottles for industries including the food and pharmaceutical sectors. A total of 800m closures are produced on an additional six injection moulding machines.

Alpla employs some 19,300 people worldwide. The Austrian group manufactures bottles, closures and other injection-moulded parts at 176 locations.