Polyolefins producer Borealis AG announced July 17 that it has signed an agreement to acquire 100 percent of the shares in Austria-based plastics recycler Ecoplast Kunststoffrecycling GmbH. This transaction is subject to regulatory approvals.
The deal is the latest since Borealis entered the recycling business two years ago when it bought the German plastics recycling companies, MTM Plastics GmbH and its sister company, MTM Cmpact GmbH. Just weeks ago, Borealis announced investments to the tune of 15 million euros ($17.5 million) in MTM Plastics and 2.5 million euros ($2.9 million) in MTM Compact, designed to ramp up the processing capacity of the two facilities.
Based in Wildon, Austria, Ecoplast processes around 35,000 metric tons of post-consumer plastic waste from households and industrial consumers every year, turning them into high-quality low density polyethylene and high density PE recyclates, primarily but not exclusively for the plastic film market. Whereas MTM's focus is on rigid, injection molding solutions, Ecoplast's core competence is recycling flexibles from highly contaminated PC waste into a product that is suitable for thin film production.
Borealis CEO Alfred Stern called the takeover of Ecoplast "a logical next step for us to expand our mechanical recycling capabilities" and described the company as an "important complement to MTM."
Borealis any has identified the circular economy of polyolefins as a material issue and made it one of the three focus areas in its sustainability strategy. The company's strategic intent is to become a leader in mechanical recycling technology and by doing so, to increase the recycling rate and actively drive the circularity of polyolefins.