In Werne, a new facility aims to bring HDPE back towards food-contact use

RCS Group has started construction of a new plastics-recycling site in Werne: an investment of around €75 million across 6.5 hectares. The project is designed to process up to 100,000 tonnes of materials per year, including HDPE, polystyrene and PET trays.

The most relevant point is not only the facility’s scale. One stated objective is to develop HDPE recyclates suitable for higher-value applications, potentially including food packaging. That is a demanding step: returning recycled material to food-contact use requires strict standards for technology, quality and traceability.

RCS says the new site is expected to create around 60 jobs and expand its capacity to recover post-consumer plastics. This is a construction project and an industrial objective, not a completed result: the real test will come when the facility is operating and its capacity can be measured in material actually returned to use.

For the circular economy, the point is straightforward: recycling creates more value when material is not merely diverted from waste, but can re-enter demanding supply chains without losing quality.

Sources: RCS Group and Circular Economy News.