The ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of a new R&D centre at Erema’s site in Ansfelden was held yesterday, 6 April. Here, the company is building two halls with a total area of 1,550 square metres and a new office building with 50 workplaces. The new buildings will close the last gap at the site in Ansfelden, according to Alfred Hollerweger, head of industrial and commercial construction at Peneder, the construction company executing the project. Completion is scheduled for February 2023.
As the momentum for plastics recycling continues to grow, fuelled by developments such as the legislative targets formulated by the European Union and other countries around the world, or by the European Green Deal, which aims to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent, the need for high-quality recycled materials is becoming increasingly pressing.
While recyclate that is produced in closed-loop systems can, in general, meet the required standard, many other plastic waste streams still require a significant amount of R&D in cooperation with the value chain to achieve a recycled material suitable for use in new products.
"It makes a difference whether clean production waste is recycled and returned to the production process or whether printed and contaminated packaging materials collected in yellow bags are recycled and used to make food packaging again," noted Markus Huber-Lindinger, managing director Erema Recycling Maschinen und Anlagen GesmbH.
More space will be available for this in the new centre, where attention will be given to the latest digital technology, as well. “By collecting and analysing machine data, not only can recycling processes and product quality be further improved, but we can also develop our digital service offering for our customers,” Huber-Lindinger added.
The centre will also be fully equipped with machinery to evaluate the recycling process end-to-end, including upstream and downstream processes such as shredding and further processing of the recycled pellets. Detailed analyses will be performed in the professionally equipped, co-located laboratory.
”With the new R&D centre, we are laying the foundation for further important plastics recycling milestones from Erema,” he said.
"The necessity of investing in the circular economy and in plastics recycling is clear from the current crises, which will be with us for some time to come," said CEO Manfred Hackl. "Both corona and the consequences of the invasion of Ukraine have shown us the reality of the EU's dependence on resources. Our mission "Another life for plastic. Because we care" is more relevant today than ever before."