Plastipak Packaging Inc. is more than doubling capacity at the company's PET recycling facility in Luxembourg.
The plastic container maker and recycler said a 12-month project increased production by 136 percent at the facility co-located with preform and container manufacturing operations in Bascharage.
"This latest investment to increase our capacity in rPET [recycled PET] production actively demonstrates Plastipak's long-term commitment to bottle-to-bottle recycling and our leadership in the PET circular economy," said Pedro Martins, executive managing director of Plastipak's European division, in a statement.
Martins called his company a "leading producer of food-grade rPET in Europe." Most of the post-consumer recycled PET used by the company in Europe is produced by the company.
Plastipak converts washed PET flakes made from post-consumer bottles into recycled PET pellets that are then converted into preforms and containers in Bascharage for food and beverage applications in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Recycled resin accounts for 45.3 percent of all plastics used by Plastipak in Bascharage, the company said. Across Plastipak's European operations, recycled PET represented 27 percent of all resin used in 2020.
"Plastipak began producing post-consumer recycled resins for packaging customers in 1989, and has had many expansions in North America and Europe since then. We are excited to continue supporting our global packaging customers in achieving their sustainability goals" said Dave Stajninger, Plastipak's global recycling business manager in a statement.
Plastipak Packaging is a unit of Plastipak Holdings Inc. of Plymouth, Mich., which has more than 6,000 employees at 60 locations in the United States, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Plastipak acquired LuxPET AG SA of Bascharage in 2005, which at the time was described as one of the largest preform makers in Europe. That purchase continued a string of deals that started two years earlier for Plastipak when the company first entered Europe. The Bascharage site began operations in 1998.