Greiner Packaging acquires Serbian PET recycling company Alwag in sustainability drive

06 Sep 2022 --- Greiner Packaging is acquiring Serbia-based producer of PET flakes Alwag and is thereby broadening its business portfolio, adding the first recycling company to the group. The purchase of Alwag, which will be renamed Greiner Recycling, sees Greiner expand its business model by entering the business of reprocessing recyclable materials. 

Greiner Packaging says the acquisition represents a “direct reflection” of the company’s efforts to boost environmental sustainability. In purchasing the PET flake producer, Greiner Packaging is pushing ahead with the expansion drive it has embarked on in recent years and resolutely pursuing its circular economy goals. 

The Alwag takeover means Greiner Packaging now has three locations in Serbia: one recycling company and two manufacturing bases. 

“PET is currently the only mechanically recycled material that can be used for food applications. We are strong believers in the potential of PET and by expanding our expertise, we are actively committed to using this material effectively,” explains Manfred Stanek, CEO at Greiner Packaging.

“As we work toward our [environmental] sustainability goals, which we pursue consistently through all the business decisions we make, we naturally pay special attention to the possible creation of other [recycled PET] rPET streams in addition to the bottle-to-bottle stream. That would mean that an old PET cup could become a new PET cup in the future.” 

Existing Alwag customers will continue to benefit from a reliable supply of their usual quantities of recycled material, says Greiner Packaging. Backward integration 
One of Greiner Packaging’s declared objectives is to maximize the use of recycled material when manufacturing its products. As the first recycling company in the group, Greiner Recycling will help to secure the material streams that the company will later convert.

This environmentally sustainable form of backward integration will ensure a dependable supply of raw materials essential to the company continuing to offer customers the reliability they are accustomed to going forward. It is also key to expanding recycling as an integral part of the company’s business model. 

Alwag currently supplies its material to customers throughout Europe. Following consultations with these valued partners and a planned expansion of recycling capacity at the site, the flakes will gradually become available for Greiner Packaging’s applications and will be incorporated into its packaging solutions. 

New owner same product 
The product incorporation means that existing Alwag customers will continue to benefit from a reliable supply of their usual quantities of recycled material. To incorporate recycled PET into packaging, the PET flakes are extruded and then thermoformed. In the future, injection molding applications will also be considered. 

“The recycling of PET packaging and bottles is a project we began ten years ago as pioneers in Serbia. It has always been our ultimate goal to produce an end product made entirely of recycled PET material that can then be converted. This new Alwag product is now no longer being developed by us, but by new owners,” comments Stojan Dangubić, former director at Alwag and executive director of Aling-Conel.

“We are convinced that our vision will be successfully pursued thanks to the new owners, their commitment to the Nova Gajdobra site, and the additional investments in downstream technological processes. This step makes sense for everyone involved and will take the company’s success to even greater heights in the future,” he concludes.

Edited

By Natalie Schwertheim

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