SIG invests US$1.9 million to evolve aseptic carton recycling technology in Brazil

European solutions provider for carton packaging and filling machines, SIG Combibloc Group Ltd (SIG), has allotted US$1.9 million in funding to enhance the available technology to acquire a better value-added method of recycled aseptic cartons in Brazil. To promote recycling, polymers and aluminium from used aseptic carton packs will be extracted utilising the newly developed technology.

The retrieved aluminium and polymer will then be sold in the commercial market for respective sectors that bid for raw materials, industrialising the entire loop.

A subsidiary of Onex Corp, SIG seems quite certain that this is the company's ever initiative in the Brazilian sector.

The polyethene and aluminium concoction (PolyAl or polyaluminium) is derived from end-of-life aseptic carton packs. The element can be further recycled for application in a series of end-user products, like, pallets, furniture and roof facades.

SIG had partnered with ECS Consulting more than five years ago to perfectly design the recycling technology before constituting the first pilot project. The technology can successfully separate polyethene and aluminium from PolyAl through chemical recycling.

This extraction of the elements individually will certainly open up a broader market for these recycled materials.

SIG Americas president and general manager Ricardo Rodriguez exclaimed: "We are excited to bring to Brazil a new technology that will enable the separation of aluminium and polyethene layers from carton packs, thereby expanding the market for these materials and generating more value from the separated waste."

"This project is the latest in a series of innovative collaborations led by SIG to boost collection and recycling rates for used aseptic cartons and grow the recycling chain in a sustainable way," Rodriguez added to his statement.

SIG is optimistic that its move will augment the value of used aseptic cartons by 50 per cent.

The organisation is on the verge of constituting a recycling unit in the Brazilian state of Paraná, scheduled to be fully optimised by 2024.

The Paraná recycling facility will have a monthly primary production rate of 200 tonnes. This investment by SIG succeeded in another similar step taken in Germany, where the company funded a recycling plant to separate and extract polymers and aluminium from PolyAl. Also, in June this year, the company took ownership of the flexible packaging enterprise Scholle IPN.