Röchling Industrial invests close to €10M in recycling centre

Röchling Industrial announced it is investing almost €10 million to create a sustainability centre at its industrial recycling plant in Geeste-Dalum, Germany.

The Germany-based plastics processor first opened the plant in March 2021, where it cleans, sorts, and grounds post-industrial PE and PP from its own production and from its customers. Röchling then reprocesses the recyclates into semi-finished technical plastic products at its plant in Haren.

By 2027, the Geeste-Dalum recycling centre will be expanded to cover an area of more than 30,000 square metres, up from the original 6,300 square metres. Röchling aims to process more than 10,000 tonnes of plastic waste per year in the new sustainability centre.

Several new shredders as well as grinding and production plants will be added to the sorting plant, Röchling said in a statement. The company will also add a modern office building and a new production hall over 4,000 square metres in size. Both will be equipped with a large-scale photovoltaic system to use electricity from renewable energies. In total, the expansion and the associated increase in capacity will create around 20 new jobs.

“As a family business, sustainability plays a major role for us,” said Franz Lübbers, CEO of Röchling Industrial. “The point of this investment is to live up to our responsibility and to ensure the future viability of our company. At the same time, we are strengthening the circular economy and expanding our international pioneering role in the long term,” he added.

Röchling sells the recycled semi-finished products under the Röchling-ReLoop brand, which the plastics processor launched in 2022. The portfolio also includes post-consumer recycled products and ISCC-Plus certified products.

“Our customers can reduce their own amount of waste, return unused offcuts from production and purchase new semi-finished products made therefrom,” said Wilhelm Korte-Dirxen, COO of Röchling Industrial. “Our extensive range of services and the high quality of our sustainable products strengthens the close relationship with our customers in the long term.”

The new €10 million investment brings the total investment in Geeste-Dalum to €15 million. Röchling Industrial is part of the Röchling Group, which also includes medical and automotive divisions. The Group’s divisions generated joint annual sales of €2.7 billion in 2023.

Source: sustainableplastics