Fost Plus, the non-profit organization responsible for recycling household packaging waste in Belgium, is joining forces with waste processor Indaver, a company owned by Fernand Huts. Colruyt is also involved in the collaboration. The three companies reported this together in a press release on Tuesday.
About a year ago, Indaver announced the construction of a new recycling plant for plastics. “A European first,” CEO Paul De Bruycker noted at the time. The installation, an investment of 100 million euros, would recycle plastics into valuable basic chemicals for industry.
It is within this so-called ‘Plastic2Chemicals’ installation that Indaver will now collaborate with Fost Plus. Both players want to quickly work on circular food packaging through chemical recycling and packaging innovation. Examples of this are yoghurt pots or the foam trays that are underneath meat or fish.
26,000 tons of material
The installation should be operational by mid-2024, it said. “Polystyrene from the blue bag will then be processed into a secondary raw material with which packaging can be made again, also for food,” says Fost Plus.
Fost Plus will supply the plastics for Indaver’s new chemical recycling installation, and Colruyt also says it wants to eventually move to fully circular meat trays through the installation. Europe is imposing increasingly strict packaging standards on companies.
From 2024, the new installation will process up to 26,000 tons of material using de-polymerization technology. Recycled styrene, the end product, will have the same characteristics as new material, so that it can be made into yogurt pots again.
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