Global resin producer Indorama Ventures plans to continue its expansion in the PET recycling sector this year, the company recently announced in financial filings.
The Bangkok-headquartered plastics and chemicals giant touched on its 2020 recycling activities in a financial statement released Feb. 25. The company attributed recycling progress in 2020 to brand owners pledging to use more recycled PET.
“Despite a low virgin PET environment, our recycled PET business grew, reflecting strong commitments from customers towards circularity,” the company wrote.
The company additionally called out recycling as a segment for continued investment.
“To thrive in the shifting market landscape, our strategic priorities are to further improve our cost competitiveness, improve advocacy on sustainability of PET, and grow our recycling, packaging and specialty chemicals businesses,” the company wrote, noting that it will invest its “free cash flow of 2021 into strategic projects (including recycling growth).”
Indorama noted it has recycling expansion projects in the works that total some $400 million. These projects, which are estimated for completion between 2021 and 2023, will expand the company’s PET recycling capacity by roughly 600,000 metric tons per year.
“Our expansion plans for rPET (bottle flakes) and downstream rPET are well on track towards our [750,000-metric-ton] commitment to Ellen MacArthur Foundation,” the company wrote. Indorama’s downstream PET activities include a variety of finished products.
Indorama has made significant strides into the U.S. plastics recycling space in recent years, purchasing Athens, Ala.-based Custom Polymers PET in 2019 and Fontana, Calif.-based Green Fiber International in 2020.
In 2020, Indorama also acquired Brazilian PET recycling firm AG Resinas for about $8 million and Polish PET recycling company IMP Polowat for about $15.6 million.
The company has not yet released its full annual report for 2020.
