The U.K.-based packaging company will use its laboratory to test the recyclability of its packaging, including nonpaper components such as coatings.

Mondi, a global leader in packaging and paper headquartered in the United Kingdom, has opened its first recycling laboratory at its Frantschach mill in Austria.

According to a news release from Mondi, the new recycling laboratory will test the recyclability of paper and paper-based packaging components using nonpaper components such as coatings. While paper packaging offers sustainability benefits, Mondi says it has some barrier functionality limits for products such as perishable food. To enhance functionality, nonpaper components such as barrier coatings can be added, which in turn can impact recyclability.

Mondi says recycling tests in-house speed the process for developing sustainable packaging. Data collected in Mondi’s laboratory can be used to improve the company’s existing products and provide information about their environmental impact. Mondi also plans to use the results from its laboratory to determine how the design of new packaging can be improved, as well as how to improve the circularity of material flows.

Mondi’s new recycling laboratory will conduct tests on various paper and paper-based packaging products it develops and will determine whether the packaging can be efficiently recycled. The company says its laboratory will work in a similar way to industrial recycling facilities but on a smaller scale. Results generated from the laboratory will provide the company with evidence as to whether material can be recycled.

“The ability to provide our customers with information on the recyclability of our products will be a key enabler in our efforts to develop more sustainable solutions and enhance our value proposition for customers,” says Elisabeth Schwaiger, head of R&D and IP Flexible Packaging at Mondi. “Currently, 78 percent of Mondi’s groupwide portfolio is already either reusable, recyclable or compostable. This recycling lab enables us to move closer to our MAP2030 goals of making 100 percent of our products fulfill these requirements by 2025.”

The Foodservice Packaging Institute’s Foam Recycling Coalition presented a grant to Gilford, New Hampshire, to help its Gilford Solid Waste Center.

Town of Gilford, New Hampshire, has received a $50,000 grant from the Falls Church, Virginia-based Foodservice Packaging Institute’s Foam Recycling Coalition to add a Foam Cycle system to its solid waste center. The Gilford Solid Waste Center (GSWC) is a source-separated facility.

The Gilford Department of Public Works learned about an initiative from the New Hampshire Plastics Work Group and several district governors of Rotary clubs to create a hub-and-spoke system throughout New England to collect and recycle polystyrene (PS). The Gilford Foam Recycling Center will have an expanded service region to northern New England. There are about 125 communities and 530,000 residents within 50 miles of the location.

“The GSWC is frequently asked by residents if foam can be recycled,” says Meghan Theriault, public works director for the Town of Gilford. “We are proud to become the first hub in the state to collect and densify foam for recycling, helping to divert the material from landfills, save money on trash disposal costs and potentially generate revenue for the community.”

According to a news release from the Foam Recycling Coalition, the coalition’s $50,000 funding will assist GSWC with the purchase and installation of a PS foam recycling system, including a foam densifier, at the GSWC location. GSWC will accept loose PS foam, both rigid and food packaging, on-site during normal business hours. Rotary clubs also are planning to work together to create numerous spoke locations for foam to be dropped off or collected at organized events. The Foam Recycling Coalition reports that these clubs will handle the logistics of delivering the collected foam to a hub location, such as Town of Gilford, where it will be densified into ingots to be sold to end markets for manufacturing new products.

“The Town of Gilford is a great example of a leading community listening to residents and working with surrounding communities to create a solution for recycling foam,” says Natha Dempsey, president of the Foodservice Packaging Institute, which oversees the Foam Recycling Coalition. “By Gilford taking the first step, we hope to see other communities throughout New England get inspired and join their efforts as either a hub or spoke to divert polystyrene foam from landfills and into new products.”

The grant is made possible through contributions to the Foam Recycling Coalition, which focuses exclusively on increased recycling of postconsumer foam polystyrene. Its members include Americas Styrenics; CKF Inc.; Chick-fil-A; Dart Container Corp.; Dyne-A-Pak; Genpak; Ineos Styrolution America LLC; Pactiv Evergreen; and Republic Plastics.

The Town of Gilford is the 24th grant recipient to receive this funding since 2015. According to the Foam Recycling Coalition, more than 6 million residents in the U.S. and Canada are as a result of these grants.

The company says the added capacity makes the Clyde, Ohio, site one of the largest rPET facilities in the world.

Recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) producer Evergreen has confirmed to Recycling Today it has ordered two additional extrusion lines for its facility in Clyde, Ohio.

The completion of production expansion at its Clyde facility in July made Evergreen one of the three largest producers of rPET in North America, with 217 million pounds of annual capacity, but CEO Omar Abuaita says the addition of the two extrusion lines will make the Clyde site the largest rPET facility in the world.

“Out of the two additional lines, one is already on order and we’re working on the sixth line,” Abuaita says.

Prior the to addition, the Clyde facility had an annual capacity of 113 million pounds of food-grade rPET. The two lines add an additional 27 million to 30 million pounds of capacity each, giving the site an annual capacity of up to 173 million pounds.

Abuaita says customers have been eager for the company to up its production capacity even after the $22 million Clyde upgrade, but Evergreen held off until it could secure enough supply to justify the expansion.

“Our customers would love for us to double our footprint and double our throughput,” he says. “We’d love to do that as well, and we’re willing and able, but until we have security of supply, we don’t do that. That’s not our style.”

He adds, “The reason for that is, the way we go about it is we don’t promise customers supply we cannot fulfill and we wait until we secure the raw material. Once we have security of supply of raw material, we are more than able and willing to write a check for another line or another greenfield facility.”

The Clyde expansion began in 2021 and included a 54,000-square-foot addition that can process 11.8 billion PET bottles annually. The investment included $5 million under the American Beverage Association’s Every Bottle Back initiative in partnership with the Ohio Beverage Association and New York-based Closed Loop Partners.

Last year, Evergreen added facilities in Albany, New York; Amherst, Nova Scotia; and Riverside, California.

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The company also has confirmed it has been certified by the Ocean Bound Plastic (OBP) Certification Program in which member organizations are determined to adequately and ethically collect OBP, that the material is well-managed once collected, commercially recyclable OBP is traceable until the final recycled product and noncommercially recyclable OBP is correctly handed and corresponding plastic credits are thoroughly verified and traceable.

Evergreen joins other U.S. companies Ocean Recovery Group LLC, Oceanworks and Return Textiles LLC as certified OBP recycling organizations.

Read more about Evergreen’s expansion at its Clyde facility in the fall edition of Plastics Recycling.

The company is investing to expand its two plants in Anderson, Indiana, and to build a third plant by 2025.

Sirmax North America, the U.S. division of the Sirmax Group, which is based in Italy, was awarded the RACER Edge Award, recognizing the company for redeveloping and reusing a former General Motors Corp. property in Anderson, Indiana. The company also has announced expansion plans for its site in Andersen.

The Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response (RACER) Trust was created in March 2011 by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to clean up and position for redevelopment properties and other facilities owned by GM before its 2009 bankruptcy. In addition to Sirmax, Ameresco Inc., Lear Corp. and Saginaw County, Michigan, received recognition this year.

Sirmax has two plants in Anderson and is the first non-U.S. investor to receive the award.

“I would like to thank the state of Indiana and the city of Anderson for their continued support,” says Lorenzo Ferro, country manager of Sirmax North America, “and in particular the RACER Trust for allowing Sirmax to be a key player in a great story and in supporting the community that revolved around the GM plants. Our investment in the Anderson area allowed us to establish our initial presence in North America – a decision which proved positive for the company from the very beginning. This success has enabled us to make further investments in Anderson, and we look forward to continuing our growth in Indiana.”

Sirmax, a manufacturer of polypropylene (PP) compounds, engineering polymers, postconsumer compounds and bio-compounds for various applications, built its first U.S. production plant in 2015. The second plant was added in 2020 and became fully operational this year. The total combined production area of the two plants is 268,000 square feet. The newer plant, which Sirmax invested $35 million in, produces recycled PP from postindustrial material, while the original plant produces polyolefins from virgin materials.

Ferro says Sirmax is planning additional investments in the Anderson property by 2025 that will expand existing buildings and build a third plant. “This will bring the production of thermoplastic elastomers and engineering plastics to the United States, as well.”

Sirmax’s property in Anderson measures roughly 300,000 square meters, or 3.23 million square feet. Its third plant, measuring 12,000 square meters (129,167 square feet) will be used for the production of engineering plastics. Sirmax’s first plant will be extended to house thermoplastic elastomer production and a new warehouse, bringing the total production area from nearly 140,000 square feet to nearly 398,300 square feet. In the second plant, recycled compound production will be increased and upgraded, with the production area growing from roughly 118,400 square feet to slightly more than 290,600 square feet in 2025, the company says.

“Sirmax's presence in Anderson has transformed our community, creating great jobs and returning an idle property to productive reuse,” Anderson Mayor Thomas Broderick Jr. says. “Our Department of Economic Development, the Anderson Redevelopment Commission and the RACER Trust identified Sirmax as a potential investment partner and worked to attract the Italian company to Anderson. We are thrilled that their joint efforts, along with Sirmax's confidence and willingness to invest, are producing such great results.”

“We are very pleased that Sirmax has chosen our Anderson property to establish its presence in the North American market and congratulate the company on its success," says Elliott P. Laws, trustee of RACER Trust. "Sirmax North America is a big win for Anderson and for the RACER Trust.”

Sirmax has 13 production plants globally: six in Italy (Cittadella, Tombolo, Isola Vicentina, San Vito Al Tagliamento, Salsomaggiore Terme and Mellaredo di Pianiga), two in Poland one in Brazil (2012), two in the USA and two in India. The company also has a sales office in Milan and other branches in France, Spain and Germany. Its clients include Whirlpool, Bosch-Siemens, Electrolux, Karcher, Philips, Honeywell, ABB, Technogym, Stellantis, Volkswagen Group, Daimler, De’ Longhi, Haier, BMW and Audi. Sirmax Group had turnover of 480 million euros, or $480.8 million and employed 800 people worldwide in 2021.

Merger backed by investment fund will bring together two PET recyclers.

Latvia-based PET Baltija, which describes itself as one of the largest polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recyclers in Northern Europe, has announced an agreement to acquire a Czech PET fiber producer Tesil Fibres s.r.o from its parent Silon s.r.o.

Once final, the transaction will increase PET Baltija’s current revenue by more than 50 percent while also making it an international company. That estimate comes from the Lithuania-based INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund, which backed the acquisition.

INVL says Silon will “fully focus on both the production and development of the highest quality polyolefin-based performance compounds” after the sale.

INVL describes Tesil Fibres as a PET fiber supplier to the European market in the automotive, hygienic, textile and furniture sectors. “It is also well known for its high quality standards,” and last year its fiber division recorded sales of about $27 million, according to the fund. Tesil Fibres has production capacity of about 33,000 metric tons annually and has about 150 employees.

Salvis Lapinš, board chair of PET Baltija, says, “This deal will really put PET Baltija on a map as a key international player for the sector. We recognize and are excited by Tesil Fibres’ impressive high growth potential and its dedicated team of professionals. Working closely with the team and other key stakeholders, we plan to develop the company further, accelerating its growth and creating real value for all those involved. By ensuring the supply of best-in-class recycled PET materials, we will look to significantly contribute to the growth of the Tesil Fibres’ business and add greater product differentiation to it. It is also important to mention that through these developments, the overall volume of recycled PET will also increase.”

Deimante Korsakaite, an executive partner at INVL a member of the supervisory board at PET Baltija, adds, “This agreement to acquire reinforces INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund’s goal to significantly expand PET Baltija through both organic growth and bolt-on acquisition strategies. Since our initial investment, PET Baltija alone has more than doubled its revenue and is on track to finalize an organic growth expansion project that will more than triple its food-grade PET production capabilities. This deal will cement the company as a truly international vertically integrated market player that is committed to sustainability and tackling environmental issues. This represents a significant development and leads to become a $100-plus revenue company.”

PET Baltija is part of Eco Baltia, an environmental and waste management group in the Baltics that describes itself as providing waste collection and sorting services, secondary raw material logistics, and raw material processing. Its recycled product portfolio includes PET flakes and granules (including food packaging), of which it says nearly 100 percent is exported.

The INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund is focused on the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and the neighboring regions of Poland, Scandinavia and Central Europe.