Recycling balance sheet brings new record - PET to PET defies crisis: over 28,000 t of PET material processed for the first time in 2020

2020 was a difficult economic year - especially for the recycling industry. As a critical infrastructure, one was particularly challenged by pandemic and accompanying lockdowns. And sharply reduced sales, due to an extremely low oil price or the consequently very low price level for virgin material, continue to cause problems for the industry. "Despite these major challenges, PET to PET has managed to maintain production operations almost throughout and even achieve a new record result. We are very proud of this," says PET to PET managing director DI Christian Strasser, explaining the reasons: "Three points are primarily responsible for this: Firstly, thanks to a detailed pandemic plan that is precisely tailored to production - including extremely strict hygiene measures and COVID-19 rapid tests - we can enable our employees to work safely under the circumstances. Secondly, the Austrian beverage industry continues to play a pioneering role when it comes to using recyclates in new PET containers; this benefits our sales. And thirdly, we are constantly improving ourselves through consistent process optimization as well as the expansion of our facilities in line with the circular economy."

Investments increase productivity and generate jobs
In the past year, the handling areas were greatly expanded while maintaining the highest safety standards in terms of fire protection. The outdoor storage area was expanded by around a third (+ 13,500 m2), while the covered storage area was increased by around half (+ 2,200 m2) thanks to a new warehouse. To increase production capacity, a second granulation line was built, which can produce around two tons of food-grade PET recyclate per hour. There was also the commissioning of a new silo in the recyclate filling area. "The investments we have made not only ensure the seamless and resource-saving recycling of PET bottles in Austria. Thanks to the construction of our new production plant, we have also been able to create eight additional jobs," Strasser is pleased to report.

Circular economy to be further expanded in 2021
Further investments are on the agenda for the current year. On the one hand, the company wants to improve the separation of bottle labels within the production plant and thus further increase quality. On the other hand, the construction of a new high-performance loading station for silo vehicles is planned. "We are looking positively to the future and continue to ask the public to dispose of all used PET bottles in the correct container. In this way, we can keep the extremely high-quality packaging material PET in circulation for as long as possible and conserve valuable resources. Every contribution and every PET bottle counts. In any case, we are prepared for this and plan to be able to increase our total throughput capacity by another 20% with the operation of the newly built granulation plant," concludes Strasser.
(PET to PET Recycling Österreich GmbH)