Norway's first PET recycling plant for returnable bottles with a capacity of up to 25,000 tons per year will, from now on, recycle over 80 percent of the country's total returnable non-returnable bottles. For Veolia PET Deutschland GmbH, this is the fourth recycling plant that produces food-grade PET pellets, alongside the operation of plants in Rostock, Frauenfeld (Switzerland) and Norrköping (Sweden).
Veolia's partner Infinitum, operator of the Norwegian deposit one-way system, pre-sorts the bottles at the Fetsund site, around 30 kilometers northeast of Oslo. The plant, built from March 2019 to May 2021 at the same location, drastically shortened the logistics routes. This and the increased use of recyclate in the production of new bottles in the future will help reduce climate-damaging carbon dioxide emissions and support the recycling of PET.
Matthias Harms, CEO of Veolia Germany: "Fetsund is our fourth PET recycling plant of this kind in Europe. Veolia has been active in this area since 2000, in its plants in Sweden, Germany and Switzerland, and together with the industry and the responsible authorities, to close the plastic cycle. Therefore, we are confident that with the support of our partner Infinitum and others involved, the new recycling plant will establish a successful PET material cycle in Norway. " Veolia has been working with Infinitum for more than ten years, and the new recycling facility marks the start of a new phase in this partnership. "We are proud to be part of the joint initiative to expand the circular economy and thus to protect resources consistently," emphasizes Harms.
The pandemic restrictions had led to delays in completing the facility, which was originally announced for the end of last year.
