Plastipak Packaging Inc. is acquiring a high-profile plastics recycler in Europe.
The Plymouth, Mich.-based company said Nov. 2 it completed the acquisition of the business assets of Evolve Polymers Ltd. of Hemswell Cliff, England.
The move extends Plastipak's extensive plastic recycling operations by adding the capacity to handle an additional 6 million to 9 million PET bottles annually each year at the newly acquired site, the company said. That's on top of the billions of bottles the company already recycles annually.
The facility “will begin operating immediately under Plastipak's ownership. Contracts with Evolve's existing key business partners have been secured for continued effect,” the company said.
Evolve makes food-grade and other high-quality material from the recycled PET, Plastipak said.
“We currently operate plastic recycling operations in the U.S. through our Clean Tech subsidiary, and in France and Luxembourg for our European customers. This acquisition complements our existing recycling businesses, and amplifies our ability to bring our world-class technologies and know-how to better serve our U.K. and European-based customers,” said Martin Hargreaves, managing director of Plastipak Europe, in a statement.
Investment firm Aurelius Equity Opportunities previously owned Evolve Polymers, which had changed its name from EcoPlastics after Aurelius took control.
The Aurelius website called the company one of Europe's leading plastic bottle recyclers that operates one of the world's largest and most sophisticated plastic reprocessing plants, capable of sorting 150,000 tonnes (165,000 tons) of mixed bottles per year.
That capacity represents about 35 percent of the total bottle collection in the United Kingdom each year, the investment firm said.
Aurelius also owns Regain Polymers Ltd. in England, which recycles and compounds post-use, rigid plastics, the investment firm said.
Plastipak Packaging Inc. is a subsidiary of Plastipak Holdings Inc. that designs and makes rigid plastic containers for the food, beverage and consumer products industries.
“We are excited to begin collaborating further with the management and associates formerly employed by Evolve to provide more eco-friendly plastic packaging to customers,” said Frank Pollock, president of Plastipak's international operations, in a statement. “We have been a pioneer in the plastic recycling industry, and recycling is one of our core organizational capabilities.”