Greiner Packaging buys Serbian PET flakes producer ALWAG

Kremsmünster, Austria (September 2022). The acquisition of ALWAG is a direct reflection of Greiner Packaging’s exhaustive efforts to boost sustainability. In purchasing the PET flake producer, Greiner Packaging is pushing ahead with the expansion drive it has embarked on in recent years as well as resolutely pursuing its extensive circular economy goals. The ALWAG takeover means Greiner Packaging now has three locations in Serbia: one recycling company and two manufacturing bases.

One of Greiner Packaging’s declared objectives is to maximize the use of recycled material when manufacturing its products. As the first recycling company in the group, Greiner Recycling d.o.o. will help to secure the material streams that will later be converted by Greiner Packaging. This sustainable form of backward integration will ensure a dependable supply of raw materials that are essential to Greiner Packaging continuing to offer customers the reliability they are accustomed to going forward. It is also key to expanding recycling as an integral part of the company’s business model.

ALWAG currently supplies its material to customers throughout Europe. Following consultations with these valued partners and a planned expansion of recycling capacity at the site, the flakes will gradually become available for Greiner Packaging’s applications and will be incorporated into its packaging solutions. This means that existing ALWAG customers will continue to benefit from a reliable supply of their usual quantities of recycled material.

To incorporate recycled PET into packaging, the PET flakes are extruded and then thermoformed. In the future, injection molding applications will also be considered.

Greiner Packaging is known for the diversity of its packaging production and decoration services as well as for processing an extensive array of materials. Greiner Packaging is broadening its offering through vertical integration, and the in-depth knowledge it is obtaining in the recycling sector will further strengthen the packaging specialists’ position as experts and sustainability pioneers in the international market.

As an internationally successful packaging producer, Greiner Packaging is committed to delivering innovation for a circular world – one where the same resources can be used again and again. The company takes a holistic approach to achieving this, rooted in its guiding principle: reduce, reuse, recycle. For example, Greiner Packaging will not rely solely on r-PET in the future – it will also forge ahead with initiatives to increase the use of r-PP and r-PS, recognizing that it is not necessarily a case of favoring a certain material. Rather, the aim is to provide a sustainable material solution that is perfectly tailored to the customer.