Nordic Plast officially opens recycling and sorting line on its 23rd anniversary

  • 2023-05-26

Celebrate the 23rd birthday of the Nordic Plast, plastic packaging recycling plant of the group of companies Eco Baltia, a new recycling and sorting line has been officially opened, in which the company has invested EUR 2.8 million. This will allow Nordic Plast to increase its recycling capacity by up to 30% or up to 300 tonnes per month, increasing the company's efficiency and competitiveness in international markets.

The new machine, which started operating in test mode in November, is designed to sort materials of different levels of purity, facilitating recycling also for the part of packaging that has so far been difficult to recycle. This is a key contribution to achieving the polymer recycling targets set for Latvia and the European Union (EU) from the current 22% of the total volume of polymer packaging released on the market today to 50% by 2025. The line will operate around the clock, but its operation will not affect the energy efficiency of Nordic Plast to the extent planned.

"In 23 years, the company has recycled more than 180,000 tonnes of plastic packaging and has undeniably experienced significant growth. The first major modernisation measures were already implemented in 2014, with an investment of €2.5 million to build a new production facility. We have invested more than €6 million in the development of the company over the last 10 years, and this is a natural continuation. Our main objective is to ensure that we increase the volume of local raw material, and the new sorting line will also significantly improve the quality of the raw material, as it will be sorted automatically and in much higher volumes than a human could do. This in turn will improve the quality of the final product, as quality requirements are constantly increasing to keep the company competitive in the market. The world is consuming more resources than the planet can provide, so the development and implementation of recycling technologies is important not only for our own business goals in the coming years, but also for a sustainable environment", says Andris Trumars, Director of the LLC (SIA) Nordic Plast.

The Nordic Plast is a part of the group of companies Eco Baltia, the largest environmental management group in the Baltic States by turnover, which provides a full waste management cycle from collection and sorting to repeated logistics of raw materials, wholesale and recycling. In 2019, Nordic Plast together with Eco Baltia joined the Circular Plastic Alliance Declaration, which commits to using at least 10 million tonnes of recycled plastic in the production of new plastic products every year by 2025. 

Nordic Plast has also implemented world-renowned quality management and environmental management systems, which have been certified by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) - ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, renewed ISO 50001 certificate for successful implementation of energy management processes and received the European certification programme EuCertPlast, which operates in accordance with the European Union (EU) standard EN 15343:2007. On this basis, manufacturers using recycled materials produced by Nordic Plast obtain official certification of the origin, traceability, composition of the recycled materials and quality conformity to the requirements of EuCertPlast.

"Recyclables should be seen primarily as a resource, an opportunity to create new raw materials and contribute to Latvia's economy, instead of these resources being exported or discarded. We are pleased with the successful work and growth of Nordic Plast over these years, constantly introducing new technologies and improving the efficiency and capacity of its operations, becoming a major player in the recycling market not only in Latvia, but also in the Baltics", says Māris Simanovičs, Chairman of the Board of the Eco Baltia.

Investments in creation of the new Nordic Plast line are partially covered by using the funds received from the European Union fund project “Polymer Recycling Park of the SIA “Nordic Plast”” (No.5.2.1.2/17/A/005).

Nordic Plast

Nordic Plast is one of the leading plastic recycling companies in the Baltics, recycling used polyethylene (PE) films, HDPE hard plastics and polypropylene (PP)) products. Since the establishment of the company in 2001, Nordic Plast has steadily grown its production capacities over the years, reaching 12,000 tons in 2022. The recycling process results in high value-added end product – LDPE, HDPE and PP pellets, which are used for production of various parts and templates in automotive, plastic compounding, packaging, plastic ware production and other industries. 

Nordic Plast is a part of Eco Baltia group which is the largest environmental and waste management group in the Baltics, providing the full-cycle waste management solutions from waste collection and sorting to secondary raw material logistics, wholesale and raw material processing as well as PET and PE/PP plastics recycling. 

In 2022, the Eco Baltia group pro-forma revenues expected to reach around €240mn, compared to €150mn in 2021. In September 2022, the group expanded its operations with its PET recycling arm AS PET Baltija, one of the largest PET recyclers in Northern Europe, completing the acquisition of a leading Czech fibre producer TESIL Fibres. 

The group employs more than 2,200 people in Latvia, Lithuania, and Czech Republic. Its leading companies in the existing portfolio include Eco Baltia vide, PET Baltija, Latvijas Zaļais punkts, Nordic Plast, JUMIS, Czech TESIL Fibres and Lithuania-based Ecoservice.  

Shareholders of Eco Baltia are private equity fund INVL Baltic Sea Growth Fund (52.81%), the European Bank for the Reconstruction and Development (30.51%) and management of the company (16.68%).