ECOR recycling process attracts European investor

Netherlands-based tissue manufacturer Van Houtum has announced a €5 million investment in a joint venture with United States-based Noble Environmental Technologies for the production of ECOR. Noble bills ECOR as a recycled-content particleboard that can be made from scrap paper, textiles and aseptic packaging (Tetra Pak cartons) as feedstock.

“This JV facility would convert a range of problematic cellulose fiber waste from enterprise partners, which includes paper, textiles, cardboard, de-inked sludge, spent brewers’ grains, agricultural waste, grass (miscanthus), Tetra Pak juice and milk cartons and other waste, to enable circular economy ambitions for several enterprise partners in the Netherlands,” Kevin G. Davis, of Noble Environmental Technologies tells Recycling Today.

According to an online report by the Dutch financial newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad, the ECOR panels to be made through a Van Houtum joint venture with Noble Environmental Technologies will be “an alternative to materials like medium-density fibreboard or chipboard, both in manufacturing process and chemical composition.”

Recycled-content feedstock for the joint venture plant “will be sourced from regional enterprises and institutions, including the Schiphol Airport, recycling centers and manufacturing organizations,” according to the online report.

Company officials quoted from Van Houtum say many companies that generate scrap cellulose fibre are seeking sustainable or circular economy alternatives to disposal.

Production of ECOR in the Netherlands town of Swalmen is expected to start soon. By early 2018 larger-scale production is expected to be up and running.