— By Plasteurope.com staff — 

Sales prices were simply too low, making plastics recycling unsustainable. The alpine creditors association AKV (Vienna; www.akv.at) disclosed that recycling company Bage Plastics (Sankt Marien, Austria; www.bage-plastics.com) has filed for insolvency.

The competent regional court in Linz opened the proceedings on 15 November 2024 and appointed lawyer Norbert Mooseder of GLTP Grassner, Lenz, Thewanger & Partner (Linz, Austria; www.gltp.at) as administrator.

Bage Plastics is reported to have accumulated liabilities of nearly EUR 18 mn. The company is now seeking a restructuring plan including debt relief, according to which creditors would receive 20% of their claims within two years.

The Austrian firm was founded in 2011 as a small trading company for plastics, with recycling added three years later. Today, Bage recycles plastics from used electrical appliances, in particular refrigerators. It employs 65 people at three production sites in Sankt Marien, Wolfern (both in Austria), and Großschirma (Germany) with a total capacity of 35,000 t/y. The recyclates and compounds based on polystyrene, polypropylene, ABS, and polycarbonate/ABS are supplied to customers such as Flextronics and Ineos Styrolution.

Related: Low-priced virgin material puts pressure on recyclate costs in Austria

Low sales prices for secondary feedstocks have been putting plastics recyclers under immense pressure across Europe. The lack of binding regulations on the use of recyclates is a problem for the industry, as many processors prefer to use inexpensive virgin and off-spec materials without clear legal incentives.

The situation of recyclers is worsened by fixed purchase agreements with the waste industry, which leads to ever-growing stockpiles without any prospect of selling them. KSM (Berndorf, Austria; www.ksmrecycling.at), another recycling company in Austria, declared its difficulties just recently, and in late October, UK recycler QC Polymer (Bilston) announced its insolvency.

— Translated by Christopher Köbel