Global packaging company Coveris has expanded its partnership with Austrian machinery supplier Starlinger Viscotec at its Nijkerk, Netherlands, facility, adding a deCON 20 unit to increase its capacity for post-consumer recycled PET in its packaging solutions. 

This is the latest collaboration between Coveris and Starlinger Viscotech, and the third deCON unit installed in a Coveris facility. 

Similar expansions were implemented at Coveris’ plants in France and Poland. 

The expansion at Nijkerk will allow Coveris to supply recycled PET for packaging directly to the Dutch market, the company announced May 17. 

Coveris Netherlands stated that it has observed a steady growth in PET volumes over recent years and the new deCON unit in the Netherlands is part of the strategy to address the demand while also following Chicago-based Covers' environmental strategy to reduce the need for virgin material and reduce its carbon footprint.

The deCON technology allows post-consumer hot washed flakes, recovered mainly from national collection programs, to be converted back into material suitable for direct food contact.

The module is designed to process different types of material at the same time such as post-consumer pellets, flake, or in-house skeleton waste. 

The material is predried, dedusted, and crystallized in the preheater and subsequently conveyed into the reactor vessel, where the material is dried and decontaminated. 

Coveris announced the French and Polish upgrades late last year, with the first deCON20 module installed at its Soustons, France factory. 

Following the “positive experience”, the company announced, a second unit was installed at their factory near Warsaw, Poland.