Cirrec aims for 250,000 t/yr PET tray recycling by 2025

Netherlands-based PET tray-to-tray recycler Cirrec hopes to reach 250,000 t/yr of input capacity by 2025 with new sites in Denmark and Germany anticipated to come online in the next year.

Cirrec is owned by the Faerch Group and is one of the largest PET tray-to-tray recyclers in Europe. The company is looking at further sites for expansion after 2025, including in the UK, according to recycling director Aron Damen, in a presentation made at PRSE in Amsterdam.

Cirrec has an input capacity of 60,000 t/yr with a site in the Netherlands that opened in 2024.

Damen said that action to beat challenges to the PET tray-to-tray recycling market included expanding knowledge in sorting centres to help identify and sort PET tray waste. PET tray waste has more variable levels of PET compared with bottle bales, Damen added. A sentiment shared with PETCORE Thermoforming technical manager Jose-Antonio Alarcon in a recent Q&A with Argus.

The average PET tray bale contains 50-80pc of PET compared with a less variable 70-75pc PET for bottle bales. Issues with collection and supply can lead to a loss in terms of feedstock for tray-to-tray recyclers. If the industry wants to achieve full circularity, action needs to be taken across the value chain from consumers to recyclers and eventually end users, Damen added.

"In order to achieve full circularity, the tray-to-tray industry needs to stop stealing from the bottle industry," said Damen, highlighting the need for greater sorting and variations in consumer behaviour when it came to recycling PET trays as opposed to bottles.

Capacity for PET tray-to-tray recycling is largely driven by feedstock availability, which is likely to limit production in the next few years unless there is more competition on the market, which would incentivise the sale of feedstock, Damen said.

By George Barsted