RCS Group has announced the start of construction on a new RCS Plastics site in Werne, Germany, set to expand the company’s plastics recycling facilities and create the conditions for additional closed-loop material cycles.
The site is a 6.5-hectare expansion area with an investment volume of €75 million, due to be an independent site for RCS Plastics with production, logistics, administration, maintenance, and service areas. HDPE cap closures, PS, PET trays, and beverage bottles are expected to be processed into high-quality recyclates for a variety of applications.
The Group states that around 100,000 tons of plastic material per year are anticipated to be recycled at the new site. The development and production of high-quality recyclates is said to be a particular focus, including ones suitable for food packaging, made from HDPE caps.
“The development of food-grade HDPE recyclates is one of the major challenges facing our industry. We are investing specifically in innovative processes to open up new material cycles and make recycled materials usable in even more applications,” says Alexander Rimmer, managing director of the RCS Group.
The Group marked the start of construction on the 28th August, bringing together the workforce and representative from politics, administration and business. Guests included District Administrator Mario Löhr, Mayor Lars Hübchen, Economic Development Officer Matthias Stiller, Wulf-Christian Ehrich from the Dortmund Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Ralf Bülte, head of Planning for the City of Werne, and representatives from construction partner Goldbeck.
The project was supported by close cooperation with the participating authorities, the district government and the city of Werne. The new facility is expected to create around 60 new jobs and approximately 5 apprenticeships.
The site is currently scheduled to be completed between late 2027 and early 2028.
In August Aldi and Arla teamed up with Polytag on a project to track milk bottles through the recycling process using UV-tagging technology. The latest phase of a collaboration started in 2023, wrap-around labels printed by Saica Flex and using Sun Chemical’s food-safe fluorescent ink are applied to Arla’s milk bottles at its Oakthorpe site.
The same month saw start-up ReVentas awarded a £3.5m grant from Scottish Enterprise (Scotland’s national economic development agency) to fund the development of its solvent-based recycling technology over the next three years, particularly focusing on hard to recycle plastics including food packaging films. According to Scottish Enterprise, ReVentas’ technology utilizes a chemical solvent to dissolve waste plastics, filtering out contaminants including colour and odour and producing a ‘natural, virgin-like’ polymer that can be used directly in applications such as packaging and consumer and automotive products.
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