Extrusion International 6-2021

33 Extrusion International 6/2021 ALPLA Group www.alpla.com HDPE Recycling Plant in Mexico Starts Operation „ The ALPLA Group has opened a new plant for HDPE plastic recycling in Toluca, Mexico. At the same time, the company has announced it will double its annual regrind material production capacity to 30,000 tonnes from the second half of 2022. ALPLA celebrated the inauguration of its new state-of-the-art recycling plant for high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastics in Toluca, the capital of the central Mexican State of Mexico, on 10 November. Among the guests were the Austrian ambassador to Mexico, Elisabeth Kehrer, and the governor of the State of México, Alfredo del Mazo Maza. Following the announcement of the plant’s construction in September 2020, it took a little more than a year for the work to be completed. The investment sum came to around 20 million euros. Around 70 new jobs have been created at the plant, which will be run as a wholly owned subsidiary of ALPLA. The facility is currently designed for an annual capacity of 15,000 tonnes of recycledHDPE (rHDPE) in pellet form. This regranulate is mainly used for the production of non-food packaging. The demand for recycling material is so high in Mexico and Central America that the majority of the output will be used regionally. With the initial start-upof the new recyclingplant, ALPLA is stay- ing true to its strategic focus of thinking ahead and investing in regions where the demand for recycled materials has a lot of growth potential. The success of this strategy is evidenced by the fact that ALPLA can already announce an increase in the recycling plant’s annual „ Sumika Polymer Compounds Turkey (formerly Ema ş Group), a predominant player in the Turkish compoundingmarket, is now manufacturing the company’s THERMOFIL HP ® (high perfor- mance) polypropylene (PP) compounds directly for customers in Turkey and in countries bordering the Black Sea. Sumika Polymer Compounds (SPC) Turkey is part of the compa- ny’s European group structure itself a subsidiary of the Japanese group Sumitomo Chemical Co Ltd. manufacturing and supply- ing a wide range of thermoplastic compounds and polyole fi n- Production of Polymer Compounds in Turkey based elastomers. SPC Turkey has three compounding plants located in Gemlik, Bursa andManisa. The Turkish facilities, which were acquired early 2019, are well- established in mineral and recycled PP and production of THER- MOFIL HP®will begin at the Gemlik plant. The implementation of additional compounding will increase SPC Turkey’s overall production capacity to 60Kt per year. THERMOFIL HP ® is an engineered short glass reinforced PP with performance features enabling it to replace polyamides (PA) and polybutylene terephthalates (PBT) and long- fi bre PP. The main bene fi ts offered by THERMOFIL HP ® include light-weight- ing and cost reduction, lowdensity, improved strength and stiff- ness, creep impact resistance and easy processing. Sumika Polymer Compounds is recognised for its sustainable and robust highperformance PP resinswhicharepredominantly used in automotive, white goods and various industrial applica- tions and has manufacturing facilities providing local supply and support to customers in the United States, the UK, Thailand, China, Japan, India, France, andmost recently in Poland. Sumika Polymer Compounds Europe www.sumikaeurope.com production capacity to 30,000 tonnes starting in the second half of 2022. In early 2021, the ALPLA Group announced that it would invest an average of 50 million euros a year until 2025 in the ongoing expansion of its recycling activities. In particular, it plans to glo- balise its activities in the area of high-quality recyclates in order to close the materials cycle in as many regions as possible. In all, the annual capacity of the ALPLA recycling companies, joint ventures and partnerships amounts to approximately 130,000 tonnes of PET and 60,000 tonnes of PE. ALPLA celebrated the inauguration of its new state-of-the-art recycling plant in Toluca, Mexico (Copyright: ALPLA) THERMOFIL HP ® is an engineered short glass reinforced PP with performance features enabling it to replace polyamides (PA) and polybutylene terephthalates (PBT) and long- fi bre PP predominantly in automotive, white goods and various industrial applications (Photo: SPC)