The American company Wellman Inc (1040 Broad Street, Shrewsburg, NJ 07702 / USA) has set up a French subsidiary which will start recycling PET bottle waste from the middle of this year. Wellman France Recyclage will be based at Verdun / La Meuse. The French market for PET bottles is one of the fastest growing in Europe (up 20% last year) and the volume of post consumer bottles collected is also increasing rapidly. By 1997 it is estimated that 10,000 t of non-returnable bottles will be collected.

The Wellman factory will be the first PET recycling unit in France, and it has been able to go ahead thanks to financial support from the French recycling company Eco-Emballages (44 avenue G. Pompidou, F-92300 Levallois Perret), Recy PET and help from Valorplast SA (14 rue de la République, F-92800 Puteaux), guarantor for plastics recycling. The collection and sorting of the used plastic bottles will be part of the Eco-Emballages programme, whilst the recycling will be done at the Verdun factory using technology developed by Wellman.

Wellman further expanded their PET activities in Europe as of 31st December 1995 with the acquisition of the PET packaging resin plant of Akzo Nobel NV (PO Box 9300, NL-6800 SB Arnhem). The plant based at Emmen has a capacity of 45,000 t and a further 37,000 t will be transferred from Akzo later. With the acquisition of the Akzo Nobel business, Wellman "took the first step towards a significant position in the European market". The American group intends to build a total European capacity of 250,000 t/y, either by extension of Emmen or further acquisitions.

At the moment, Wellman produces more than 113,000 t/y of its "Permaclear" PET packaging material and is planning an additional 91,000 t/y of capacity for its Palmetto plant in Darlington, South Carolina / USA for the first half of 1997. With a $ 1bn investment programme for the next five years, the group intends to double its North American fibre and polymer capacity by 1998 and have worldwide raw material capacity of 635,000 t/y.