December 9, 2025 11:38

Alpla, the Austrian producer of plastic packaging, is advancing its circular packaging initiatives with the launch of a new company in the Netherlands dedicated to developing and eventually producing food-grade recycled HDPE.

Together with the National Test Center Circular Plastics (NTCP) in Heerenveen, the Austrian group is refining a new solvent-based process for recovering post-consumer polyethylene, which is currently being trialed at a pilot facility.

The goal of the project—supported by the Dutch Ministry for Climate Policy and Green Growth—is to be ready for the full implementation of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) in 2030, with a recycling technology for rigid HDPE containers that is already scalable to industrial levels, thus enabling compliance with minimum recycled content targets.

“At present, there is no certified process in the EU for producing food-grade recycled HDPE,” explains Michael Heyde, head of the Technology Recycling Division at Alpla. “Our highly efficient technology, based on the purification and transformation of post-consumer waste, could radically change the landscape.”

The patented process developed by Alpla and NTCP will undergo rigorous testing at the Heerenveen pilot plant before being submitted for approval by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for food-contact use. The next step will be industrial scale-up of the process.

The Austrian group is already active in PET and HDPE recycling through 14 facilities with a combined annual capacity of approximately 400,000 tonnes of pellets, primarily used for its own packaging production.

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