Alpla to advance recycling capabilities with new appointment
Alpla
Michael Heyde
Austrian packaging company Alpla has appointed recycling expert Michael Heyde as the head of recycling technology, a new role created to for Heyde specifically with the aim of bolstering the company's recycling capabilities.
The Hard-based company told Plastics News Europe that it had set specific goals with the appointment but declined to further elaborate.
Those goals, it went on to say, will be further developed in collaboration with customers.
In a 12 July statement, Alpla said the new appointment would complete its team of experts in Hard and give a boost to its centre of expertise for recycling technology.
"We want to expand our previous focus on PET to include HDPE and closures,' explained Dietmar Marin, head of the injection stretch blow moulding (ISBM) and recycling business unit.
Heyde is specialised in the development of new areas of application for post-consumer recycled plastics.
He has extensive experience acting as an interface between the waste management industry and the packaging industry.
Prior to moving to Alpla, Heyde served as head of product and process development at Der Grüne Punkt – Duales System Deutschland GmbH, the operator of the most commonly used German waste separation system, where his responsibilities particularly included process development for closed-loop systems and the development of recycled materials for the group's production facilities.
Heyde has previously worked as head of systems analysis at the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging in Freising, Germany, where his work included the development of methods for the preparation of product life cycle assessments.
He holds a PhD from the Technical University of Berlin in food science and biotechnology.
Alpla has stepped up its activities in recycling lately, as evidenced by its recent announcement of a joint cooperation agreement with Swiss packaging equipment supplier Fromm Holding AG.
The two companies said 3 July that they would be working together on the distribution of PET waste among their recycling units to optimise recycling rates and save on transport.