Rigid food packaging manufacturer and recycler Faerch (Holstebro, Denmark; www.faerch.com) said it recently celebrated the grand opening of its state-of-the-art Cirrec plant located in Duiven, Netherlands.

It said the plant has an input capacity of 60,000 t/y and processes used PET trays from household waste across the Benelux countries, Germany, and Sweden. 

Faerch said 400,000 t and about 106 bn pieces of rigid food packaging are flooding the market each year, with more than 90% ending up in landfills or being burned. It added that Faerch holds a 20% market share, which translates to around 24 bn products sold annually.

Some 3 bn of these, or around 13% of the sold items, will now be circular with the Cirrec plant, the company said, adding that it aims for 100% circularity and aspires to create a global commodity of circular tray material for the wider industry.

It said that there are 9 bn pieces of packaging sold made of PET, and that Faerch aims to lead material conversion from polystyrene and polypropylene to PET, the only circular material that can be recycled an infinite number of times.

Faerch, owned by private equity group A.P. Moller Holding (Copenhagen, Denmark; www.apmoler.com), bought the company 4PET Recycling in 2019, and rebranded it as Cirrec in 2022. At the time of announcement in 2022, Faerch said it was recycling the equivalent of 1.2 bn/y of food trays. It also said then that this roughly reflected the entire Dutch market of sorted rigid PET household food packaging or, alternatively, the total amount of sorted PET pots, tubs, and trays in Scandinavia.