Alba breaks ground on plastics recycling plant in Hong Kong

The Alba Group, a recycling company headquartered in Germany, has broken ground on its first polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and HDPE (high-density polyethylene) plastics recycling plant in Hong Kong. The project is part of a joint venture that includes Baguio Waste Management & Recycling Ltd., a Hong Kong-based recycling company, and Swire Coca-Cola Ltd., that is operating under the name New Plastics Ltd.

The plant is being built at an industrial site for recycling and environmental technology in Hong Kong near an electronics recycling facility that Alba opened in 2018, the company says in a press release announcing the groundbreaking.

The new plant will perform high-tech sorting and produce food-grade PET flakes and HDPE pellets. The planned annual capacity is more than 35,000 metric tons, and regular operations are scheduled to begin by the second half of 2020, Alba says.

Swire Properties Ltd., part of Swire Pacific Ltd., will be responsible for project design and construction of the facility, which will feature technologies for wastewater treatment and photovoltaic systems.

As a local waste management and recycling partner, Baguio will contribute its expertise in waste management to the design of the collection and logistics system.

The Alba Group will supply the technical know-how for the sorting and processing of the supplied plastics into flakes and pellets.

The food-grade PET flakes will be reused to produce new bottles; HDPE pellets will be used to make consumer and industrial products.

Axel Schweitzer, CEO of Alba, says, “The Alba Group is a leader in recycling technology and continues to expand its position in the Asian market with the new project in Hong Kong. Following the successful opening of the largest recycling facility for electrical waste in Southeast Asia last year, we are very proud to now also build Hong Kong's first recycling plant for PET and HDPE."

Ben Ng, chairman of Baguio Green Group, the parent company of Baguio Waste Management & Recycling Ltd., says, “As an integrated environmental services company, we believe that recycling in Hong Kong is an extremely important building block for the sustainable development of the city. We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with an experienced partner such as the ALBA Group, which is known for its technological expertise.”

"As one of the leading manufacturers of soft drinks in Hong Kong, we are determined to stop the flood of disposable beverage packaging and to achieve a more sustainable use of plastic,” says Pat Healy, managing director of Swire Coca-Cola Ltd. “This joint venture enables us to live up to our responsibility in the cycle management of one of the most widely used disposable plastic packaging—PET. This is in keeping with Coca-Cola's World Without Waste vision.”

Healy adds, “Besides, we are a consumer of recycled PET. Its return to our supply chain is an important step towards the independence of the plastics we use. In addition, we are helping to ensure a closed loop of plastic beverage packaging in Hong Kong."