One of South Africa’s leading paper recyclers and rigid plastic packaging producers, Mpact (Johannesburg; www.mpact.co.za), is entering the plastics recycling market. The company is planning to invest ZAR 350m (EUR 24.6m) in a new PET recycling plant, to be located in Wadeville, Germiston – about 15 km southeast of Johannesburg. The facility, which is due to come on stream in H2 2015, will be capable of processing about 29,000 t/y of PET plastic bottles, generating 21,000 t/y of rPET.

The plant will be run by newly formed entity Mpact Polymers, which is 21% owned by the Industrial Development Corporation (Sandton / South Africa; www.idc.co.za). The facility is expected to create about 1,000 direct and indirect jobs, Mpact said. Plant equipment will be supplied by Krones (Neutraubling / Germany; www.krones.com/en).

The group drew on the expertise of some of its key customers when drawing up plans for the facility, including experts from Coca-Cola Company (Atlanta, Georgia / USA; www.thecoca-colacompany.com), Amalgamated Beverage Industries (ABI, Sandton / South Africa; www.abi.co.za) and recycler PETCO (Muizenberg / South Africa; www.petco.co.za). Mpact said the key customer for the rPET produced at the new plant will be ABI. Other end users include the group itself, as well as external clients who will convert the recyclate into preforms, bottles, jars and food trays.

Commenting on the facility, Mpact CEO Bruce Strong said, “The South African market currently uses about 124,000 t of PET bottles a year. Some 59,700 t of PET was collected for recycling in 2013. So, our initial objective to collect and process 29,000 t/y indicates a clear opportunity to expand PET recycling.”

Mpact operates 32 sites of which 22 are actual operation facilities, in South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The company has a workforce of 4,000. Its portfolio ranges from paper production and recycling to rigid plastics production.