By Plasteurope.com staff

Half a year later than planned, Saperatec (Dessau-Roßlau, Germany; www.saperatec.de/en) has announced the opening of a recycling plant for film and beverage carton waste at its headquarters. When the plant becomes fully operational, by mid-2025, the company – which was founded in 2010 and now employs around 60 – plans to process around 30,000 t/y of base material, as managing director Thorsten Hornung said in response to a Plasteurope.com query.

Saperatec uses its patented “wet-mechanical” recycling process, in which multi-layer composite materials are first delaminated without solvents using a hot-washing process with water-based separating liquids. After the sorting, cleaned plastics are processed into recyclates from which new plastic film, for example, can be produced.

The plant is to mainly recycle plastic-aluminium rejects, also known as PolyAl, which accrue as scrap material in the recycling of beverage cartons. The plant can also break down scrap from the production of plastic-aluminium laminate film into its individual components.

In Germany, beverage cartons are disposed of via the ‘dual systems’. On their behalf, packaging is sent to paper mills for further recycling, where the paper-fibre content is separated from the plastic-aluminium fraction for reuse. Since 2021, a second plant in Germany for the processing of plastic-aluminium rejects has been in operation by Palurec (Hürth; www.palurec.com).

Saperatec produces polyethylene recyclates (LDPE, HDPE) from the base material, some of which the company also sells directly. For other residual material streams – such as paper fibre/plastic mixes – Hornung said he plans to develop new recycling paths with partners. 

In addition to the separation of plastic, metal, and paper layers, the separation of glass composites is also up for further development, announced Sebastian Kernbaum, co-founder and CTO of Saperatec, at the opening of the plant in May.

— Translated by Christopher Köbel