Packaging and recycling specialist ALPLA is building a state-of-the-art recycling plant in the South African coastal town of Ballito, north of Durban.

The plant, with an output of 35,000 tonnes of recycled PET material, marks the company’s entry into the African recycling market. Construction will start in summer 2023 and completion is planned for autumn 2024.

ALPLA is investing around €60 million euros in the construction of its first own recycling plant in southern Africa. The company will build a modern plant in Ballito in the South African province of KwaZulu Natal by autumn 2024.

The ALPLA Group is strengthening its commitment in southern Africa. After opening its new headquarters in Lanseria near Johannesburg in autumn 2022, the internationally active company is now announcing the construction of its first own recycling plant in South Africa. By autumn 2024, a modern plant for recycling used PET bottles will be built on a 90,000-square-metre site in Ballito near Durban in the province of KwaZulu Natal.

It is the first investment in a food-grade PET recycling facility in South Africa’s second largest province by population and a key investment for the region. In future, almost 60,000 tonnes of PET bottles will be recycled per year and 35,000 tonnes of mechanically recycled rPET flakes and pellets will be produced from them, the majority of which ALPLA will process to produce its own bottles.

‘Our goal is a bottle-to-bottle cycle at the location of our activities. In this way, as a recycler and producer, we can secure the supply of safe, affordable and sustainable packaging worldwide and at the same time promote awareness of the recyclable material,’ emphasises ALPLA CEO Philipp Lehner.

The company is investing around 60 million euros in the project in the industrial region around Ballito. The new plant will increase the annual production capacity of all ALPLA recycling companies and cooperations to around 238,000 tonnes for rPET (recycled PET) and 74,000 tonnes for rHDPE (recycled HDPE).

From 2025, the internationally active packaging and recycling specialist ALPLA will produce around 35,000 tonnes of rPET per year at its new recycling plant in South Africa.