Austrian packaging and recycling company ALPLA has secured government funding in the Netherlands and set up a new recycling business there, trialling a patented solvent-based technology to produce food-grade recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE).
Pilot testing has begun at the NTCP (National Test Centre Circular Plastics) facility in Heerenveen.
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The four-year research and development programme is being funded by the Dutch Ministry of Climate Policy and Green Growth.
The programme will assess each stage of the process using a pilot plant jointly run with NTCP, an independent technology institute.
ALPLA recycling division technology head Michael Heyde stated: “To date, there is no certified process in the EU [European Union] for the production of food-grade HDPE recycled material. Our highly efficient technology for cleaning and processing post-consumer recycled material could be a real game changer.”
ALPLA plans to seek authorisation from the European Food Safety Authority and, if successful, move the technology to industrial scale ahead of the European Union’s 2030 Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).
The PPWR will introduce minimum recycled content thresholds for packaging placed on the EU market.
The patented process makes it possible to manufacture food-safe recycled HDPE (rHDPE) at industrial scale for the first time.
The group has created a separate recycling company in the Netherlands to support both the demonstration phase and potential commercial deployment.
The plastics and packaging specialist already operates 14 recycling sites worldwide for polyethylene terephthalate and HDPE, with current and planned capacity totalling 400,000t a year.
Most of this output is used internally for packaging applications.
Implementation of the solvent-based pilot plant in Heerenveen is being undertaken by a combined ALPLA and NTCP team, with financial and policy support from the Dutch Ministry of Climate Policy and Green Growth.
NTCP CEO Martine Brandsma added: “This cooperation with ALPLA fits perfectly to the core activities and mission of NTCP as an independent knowledge institute, to facilitate and accelerate technology developments with frontrunner parties. We believe that new technologies are needed to completely close the plastics value chain while reducing the amount of waste.”
In early 2025, ALPLA opened its new facility in Chachoengsao, Thailand, expanding its operations in the Asia-Pacific region.
