Altstoff Recycling Austria (ARA, Vienna; www.ara.at/en) said it is currently constructing a plant in Pöchlarn, Austria, for the mechanical recycling of various polyolefin waste streams.

The line, which is due to come into operation in the summer and has been built in cooperation with local plant operator SRP Sekundär Rohstoff Produktion (Pöchlarn; www.top-umweltservice.at/srp), is designed to recover valuable materials from the various waste fractions that were previously sent to waste incineration plants. 

ARA company board member Martin Prieler notes, “The treatment process results in polyolefin recyclates of at least 90% purity, which are then mechanically or chemically recycled by the industry as secondary raw materials”.

Up to 30,000 t/y of recycled materials can be produced with ARA’s patented upcycling process. Both mixed plastics fractions from the yellow-bag system and commercial collection fractions are to be processed. ARA did not provide any further details upon Plasteurope.com query.

Related: Recycled volume of PET in Austria almost at previous year’s level

Together with Germany’s Duales System Holding (DSD, Cologne; www.gruener-punkt.de/en) and environmental technology specialist Bernegger (Molln, Austria; www.bernegger.at), ARA is building a domestic sorting plant for lightweight packaging in Ennshafen. The plant is scheduled to go online this year with a sorting capacity of around 100,000 t/y. Environmental services provider PreZero (Neckarsulm, Germany; www.prezero.com) is building a similarly sized lightweight packaging sorting plant in Sollenau, Austria.

Since the start of 2023, plastic packaging such as yoghurt pots, bags, and tubes has been collected nationwide, together with plastic bottles and beverage cartons, in the yellow bins and bags of the country’s Gelbe Tonne and Gelber Sack systems. These additional volumes require further sorting capacities.

If the EU targets are to be achieved by 2025, 80% of all packaging must be sorted and recycled next year. The figure for last year was around 60%.