Greiner Packaging moves into recycling with purchase of PET flake producer Alwag

Photo Credit: Greiner Packaging

In a move that marks its expansion into the recycling sector, Austria-based packaging supplier Greiner Packaging has purchased Alwag, a Serbia-based producer of PET flakes.

The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

In a Sept. 6 statement, Greiner officials said that Alwag will be renamed as Greiner Recycling d.o.o.

“The acquisition of Alwag is a direct reflection of [our]…efforts to boost sustainability,” the statement said. “The Alwag takeover means [we] now have three locations in Serbia: one recycling company and two manufacturing bases.”

One of Greiner Packaging’s declared objectives is to maximize the use of recycled material when manufacturing its products, it said. As the first recycling company in the group, Greiner Recycling d.o.o. will help to secure the material streams that will later be converted by Greiner Packaging. “This sustainable form of backward integration will ensure a dependable supply of raw materials that are essential to [our] continuing to offer customers the reliability they are accustomed to going forward,” company officials said. “It is also key to expanding recycling as an integral part of [our] business model.”

Alwag currently supplies its material to customers throughout Europe, and its flakes will gradually become available for Greiner Packaging’s applications and will be incorporated into its packaging solutions. To incorporate recycled PET into packaging, the PET flakes are extruded and then thermoformed. In the future, injection molding applications will also be considered, Greiner officials said.