US-based Plastipak Invests Over €25 Million to Launch PET Resin Production Facility in Italy

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On October 14, US-based Plastipak Packaging officially inaugurated its PET Materials Center in Verbania, Italy. The project represents an investment of more than €25 million and primarily produces pakPET single-pellet PET resin containing 30% post-consumer recycled material. The new facility is located within the company's existing production site and has already begun production, supplying recycled-content PET feedstock to markets including food and beverage, home care and personal care, and pharmaceutical packaging.

The center employs a single-pellet formulation combining virgin PET with recycled PET, incorporating 30% recycled material directly into finished resin pellets. The production process involves the depolymerization and purification of recovered PET as well as its compounding with virgin PET material to form resin feedstock ready for direct use in downstream packaging processing. The related processes have entered actual production.

pakPET resin can be used for food and beverage containers, personal care product packaging, pharmaceutical packaging, and thermoformed articles. The product is compatible with existing PET processing equipment, has obtained approvals for food-contact applications within the applicable scope, and its post-consumer recycled content traceability system is certified under the EN 15343 standard.

Construction of the new production facility took approximately 420 days and received project support from Italy's Invitalia. The Verbania site previously manufactured PET resin and preforms; the resin produced can be fed directly into on-site injection molding equipment or sold to external customers. The newly added Materials Center connects recycled PET processing with finished resin production into the existing manufacturing system.

Plastipak's Verbania plant produces more than 1.7 billion plastic preforms annually, and its existing operations cover PET material manufacturing and packaging processing. The new Materials Center held its inauguration ceremony on October 14, with Plastipak CEO Ed Morgan and representatives of local Italian government attending the event.