FachPack 2022: Alpla demonstrates recycling tech and virtual reality for circularity boosts

29 Sep 2022 --- Alpla showcased its capacity and methods for combatting packaging waste for the first time at the FachPack trade show in Nuremberg, Germany. On the show floor, PackagingInsights met with company representatives to discuss the various routes it is establishing to circularize the packaging industry and help businesses advance their design and waste disposal methods. 

Guenter Pesch, Alpla’s sales director for Germany, says the show gives the company a prime opportunity to showcase its basic offerings and boost its presence in the market. 

“We are currently showing our core competence: this is majorly known in the market as bottle blowing, but we are also very active in recycling and have made some acquisitions in this area recently. But we are here also to show our four Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle and replace,” he says. 

“We want to show what Alpla can do to improve the environment and circular economy. We’ve got various things demonstrating what we can do in these areas and exactly why we do it. One of the major intentions is to show that we can give value to packaging.” 

“Everybody should know this, this is our message: ‘Don’t throw it away. Bring it back and recycle it.’ We are capable of making valuable material from recycled material, and we can reuse that in your packaging.” 

The Alpla four Rs: Reduce, reuse, recycle and replace.Alpla’s recycling capacity
Alpla is known for its efforts in conducting its own recycling to complement the company’s packaging production and design. It owns a range of recycling facilities around the world and recently began expanding to help projects in the East. 

In April, it began supporting NIDSI, a German NGO, to set up recycling centers in Nepal under the project name ReValue to improve waste management in the country. The company supports technologically innovative organizations that support countries lacking the necessary infrastructure for waste collection systems.

In March, Alpla announced it would increase its annual recycling volume in Germany to 75,000 tons of PET bottles after agreeing to acquire recycling company Texplast from the FROMM Group and all of its shares in the joint venture PET Recycling Team Wolfen. 

“We have grown as a converter for bottles and caps in the global market,” says Pesch. “The son of our founder stepped into PET recycling through a collaboration, far before anybody was aware that recycling would become such a case, especially from a legal point of view.” 

Alpla’s recycling capacity and its current expansion come as legislation on recycling and recycled content tighten in the EU. The introduction of the Single Use Plastics Directive and the EU’s upcoming Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive revision mean companies are required to boost their recycling records. 

Virtual reality 
Another display at Alpla’s FachPack stand was its virtual reality headset, which allows users to tour a virtual supermarket and inspect packaging products. 

“This is another part of the Alpla story. You can get everything from us from the first scratch of the paper. Through the simulation, you can see our design capability. You can do modeling and simulation of machine processes for packaging,” says Pesch. 

“This way, customers can see how it’s possible for them to reach one of our four Rs.”

By Louis Gore-Langton

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