DAK Americas, a producer of plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resins in Argentina, has acquired CabelmaPET, a PET bottle recycling operation located in Pacheco, Buenos Aires, Argentina, that produces food-grade recycled raw materials from PET bottles.
Terms and conditions of the acquisition were not disclosed.
The acquired facility currently recycles more than 16 kilotons a year of waste PET bottles. This will increase the sustainability of DAK’s product line and help customers streamline their processes, DAK says.
DAK currently produces more than 190 kilotons a year of virgin PET resin at its facility in Zarate, Argentina, and plans to integrate the post-consumer recycled material from the acquired facility into its manufacturing process upon completion of process upgrades.
The new integrated product offerings will be marketed as a single-pellet solution under DAK’s Laser+ brand of PET resins.
DAK says incorporating recycled PET material directly into its operations will benefit customers in the bottling and packaging industries by supplying a single-pellet solution with a specified recycle content, eliminating the need for customers to establish duplicate feed processes and blending processes to accommodate recycled materials into their respective product lines.
PET bottle recycling has increased 53 percent in 12 years in the US, the National Association for PET Container Resources said in April. The association also said in 2012, 31.8 percent of PET bottles in the US were recycled or 859,000 tons. This is up 6.6 percent from 2011’s 802,000 tons, and up by 53 percent from 2002’s 398,500 tons.