Borealis has reiterated its commitment to plastic recycling and developing recycling technologies with the completion of its acquisition of Ecoplast Kunststoffrecycling, a leading provider of innovative solutions in the fields of polyolefins, base chemicals and fertilisers.
Green Growth
Ecoplast processes some 35,000 tonnes of post-consumer plastic waste from houeholds and industry annually, transforming these materials into high-quality LDPE and HDPE recyclates for the plastic film market and elsewhere.
Borealis anticipates the market for plastic film manufactured from recycled plastics will increase by 2021, which is why it has acquired the company based in Wildon, Austria.
“Borealis recognises the increasing need for plastic recycling and sees the Circular Economy as a business opportunity,” stated Borealis Chief Executive Alfred Stern. “Borealis already has a long-term collaboration with Ecoplast and this acquisition is the next logical step in building our mechanical recycling capabilities. As an important complement to mtm in Germany, Ecoplast will help us address critical sustainability challenges and become a polyolefin recycling leader. Eventually, we want to use our experience to develop an effective blueprint for the endof-use phases for plastics that can be applied in other parts of the world.”
This is the latest chapter in Borealis’ strategy for sustainable growth. In 2014, it began offering high-end compound solutions to the automotive industry, consisting of 25 per cent and 50 per cent post-consumer recycled content. Borealis was also the first virgin PO producer to explore the possibilities of mechanical recycling, by acquiring one of Europe's largest producers of post-consumer polyolefin recyclates - mtm plastics GmbH and mtm compact GmbH – in July 2016. Since then it has continued to invest into the development of technology and new products in the area of circular polyolefins.
“We are very happy that the transaction with a strong and reliable partner such as Borealis has been successfully concluded and are looking forward to our common future activities on the recycling market.,” said Lukas Intemann, Ecoplast Managing Director. “We have located potential synergies in many operative and strategic areas, especially in product quality R&D and future applications of polyethylene-film-recyclates. The combination of Ecoplast and Borealis holds the potential to be groundbreaking for the market.”
