Following last year's recycling record, PET to PET Recycling Österreich GmbH in Müllendorf, Burgenland, has once again recorded a record figure for the first half of 2023: 17,755 tons of PET beverage bottles were kept in the resource cycle - an increase of more than 17 percent compared to the previous year (2022: 15,131 tons). "We are of course delighted with the increase in the volume processed and thus an even better closing of the PET beverage bottle loop in Austria - however, we are looking forward to a very challenging future. In the second half of the year, a significant decline in recyclates used is expected on the market, due to a persistently difficult economic situation, still very high inflation and, above all, a large price difference between primary raw material (virgin) and secondary raw material (recyclate)," explains Christian Strasser, managing director of PET to PET.
Innovations at PET to PET: Construction of a PV plant
The site area for the storage of food-grade finished products, which was expanded in 2022, was successfully roofed over in a further step. A photovoltaic system with an area of 6,400 m² and an output of 1,200 kWp is currently being installed on the completed roof structure. This will involve the use of 2,373 PV panels, which in future will cover around 8 percent of the electrical energy required from the company's own generation. In further expansion stages, this value is to be further increased. In the past, the recycling company has already relied 100 percent on renewable energy to operate its plants.
Recycling targets for PET beverage bottles already met as of today - single-use plastic packaging still critical
Austria is playing a pioneering role in bottle-to-bottle recycling. The majority of beverage packaging placed on the market in Austria already consists of high-quality reprocessed used PET beverage bottles. The aim is to use at least 25 percent recyclates by 2025 and 30 percent for the production of new PET beverage bottles by 2030. Thomas Billes, managing director of PET to PET, explains, "In this country, by building up bottle-to-bottle recycling since 2007, we have already not only achieved the 2030 targets, but even significantly exceeded them, and that's something we Austrians:inside can be proud of." Christian Strasser concludes: "Even though we are playing a pioneering role in Austria with the PET bottle cycle, we see it as a major challenge that although legal minimum recycling quotas of 50 percent have been defined for single-use plastic packaging from 2025, a specification of who and where these recyclates are to be used has not yet been established. In this respect, appropriate measures still need to be taken to also enable seamless cycles."
