The PET specialists, M & G Polymers (I-20090 Assago; www.mgpolymers.com) – formerly Mossi & Ghisolfi – is currently building a new kind of recycling facility at its Point Pleasant site in West Virginia, USA. The facility will initially handle 10,000 t/y PET from bottle applications. The process technology stems from the Australian company, Petrecycle, Melbourne. The process is based on the chemical breakdown and restructuring of the polymer molecules, which is said to result in a product identical to virgin material. Coloured materials or film coated with a barrier layer can, according to Petrecycle, also be inexpensively recycled in the process. The first stage for 10,000 t/y has been built in Australia and is currently being assembled in the United States. When the final stage has been completed, M & G aims to recycle 50,000 t/y PET in the new plant.

M & G Polymers has capacities of 785,000 t/y for PET production in Italy, the UK, the USA and Mexico. In addition, the Group manufactures 2.25m preforms per year at two sites in Italy. The subsidiary company, Nuroll (I-81052 Pignataro Maggiore) also has a throughput of around 15,000 t PET film per year. M & G took over Shell´s PET activities at the beginning of 2000 (see Plasteurope.com 03, 2000).