
Hürth – Palurec, a company active in the recycling of beverage cartons, receives this year’s Circularity Best Practices award from the industry association 4evergreen. The award recognizes the separation of materials and the return of used beverage cartons to the economic cycle.
Palurec GmbH, a company of the Fachverband Kartonverpackungen für flüssige Nahrungsmittel e.V.(FKN), located in the Hürth Chemical Park near Cologne, Germany, was honored with the Circularity Best Practices award by the industry alliance 4evergreen, according to a media release. Palurec’s plant in Hürth is the first of its kind in Germany. Here, plastic and aluminum components from beverage cartons are first separated from each other and then processed into HDPE, LDPE and aluminum. The recycled raw materials can then be used in various applications, such as the production of plastic boxes or tubes. The plant has been in operation since April 2021 and uses a purely mechanical-physical process in which only water is used as a separation medium.
As Palurec’s sole shareholder, FKN includes the companies Elopak, SIG Combibloc, a subsidiary of Neuhausen SH-based SIG Group AG, and Tetrapak, headquartered in Pully VD, which have invested 8 million euros in the plant.
“Palurec is a success project in several ways. Firstly, we are using it to bring valuable raw materials back into the cycle; secondly, we are increasing the recyclability of beverage carton packaging to over 90 percent; and thirdly, the industry is showing that producer responsibility really does mean something to them,” Andreas Henn, managing director of Palurec, is quoted as saying in the statement. ce/ww