Indorama acquires equity in Czech recycler; to recycle 1.6 bn PET bottles by 2025

Thailand-based integrated PET manufacturer Indorama Ventures has acquired an 85% equity stake in Czech Republic-based PET plastic recycler UCY Polymers CZ (UCY). The equity stake in UCY is set to recycle billions of beverage bottles in the Czech Republic and elsewhere in Europe by 2025.

As a result of the investment, Indorama will recycle about 1.12 billion additional post-consumer PET plastic bottles in the Czech Republic every year by 2025, increasing the total bottles recycled by UCY across the Czech Republic, Germany and Central Europe to 1.6 billion bottles/year. UCY currently produces 40,000 tonnes/year of recycled PET flake.

Indorama adds that UCY is a strategic fit for Indorama as a backward integration into the company’s expanding recycled PET (rPET) footprint in Europe and across the world to secure feedstock for rPET products. Indorama says it will develop UCY to serve the increasing demand for recycled PET in Europe.

Indorama says it is investing US$1.5 billion globally to expand recycling facilities and sustainable production, including boosting its recycling capacity to 750,000 tonnes/year by 2025.

UCY will work with Indorama’s existing PET flake production facilities in the EU. These provide the washed and shredded post-consumer bottles as PET flake feedstock to produce recycled resin that is suitable for food contact use.

Indorama CEO D K Agarwal says the company’s know-how will be used to grow capacity and recycle more bottles. “We are building the recycling infrastructure needed to divert PET waste from the environment. By recycling post-consumer PET bottles into new bottles, we give waste an economic value.”

Maximilian Josef Söllner, UCY CEO, said, “Expanding our capacity by 2025 means an extra 896 million more bottles will be recycled in our facilities compared with today.”

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