Tube manufacturer Hoffmann Neopac has become the first company of its kind to ink a deal with Saperatec, the world’s first industrial recycling plant for aluminium laminate composites.
Saperatec’s pilot plant in Dessau, Germany has already demonstrated the ability to break down multilayer composite materials such as PE/AI into their individual materials.
Neopac, a manufacturer of tubes for cosmetics and oral care, as well as pharmaceuticals, will supply its production waste to Saperatec’s industrial separation facility upon its opening in mid-2023.
Using a special washing technique, Saperatec separates plastic and aluminium layers without dissolving them.
A laboratory study at Saperatec in 2021 on various ABL tubes from Neopac showed that the company’s Polyfoil tubes, for example, could be completely separated in this fashion.
“In addition to the already existing environmentally friendly and recyclable tubes from our EcoDesign portfolio, we are committed to a recycling solution for our conventional Polyfoil ABL tubes,” said Peter Bossert, Head of Materials Development at Hoffmann Neopac.
“With this new initiative, we will offer our customers the best possible balance between product safety and sustainability.
“As early as this year, we will make a portion of our production waste available to Saperatec to demonstrate its recyclability on an industrial scale, per the promising laboratory tests that have been performed.
“With the pending recycling of ABL tubes, we are closing a recycling gap in our portfolio.”
Thorsten Hornung, Managing Director of Saperatec, noted: “With the construction of the first recycling plant for composite materials made of plastic, paper and aluminium, we aim to produce high-quality, film-ready plastic recyclates for packaging applications while returning the recovered aluminium to the material cycle.”