Suplas — China's First Closed-Loop PET Tray Recycling Facility Enters Trial Operation

Most of China's post-consumer PET trays are downcycled. A 2026 action plan aims for 19.5 million tonnes of plastic recycling by 2030, highlighting the lack of food-grade routes for non-bottle PET.

Similar gaps exist elsewhere. Europe's PPWR mandates 30% recycled content in sensitive PET by 2030, but according to ICIS report, only 300,000 of 1.07 million tonnes of PET trays were recycled, and dedicated tray-to-tray capacity in the Netherlands, Spain and France was just 57,000 tonnes in 2022. In North America, about 120,000 tonnes of PET thermoforms were recycled in 2024, according to Napcor.

These figures highlight the gap between regulatory targets and current PET tray recycling, especially for food-grade use. A true circular economy aims to maximize resource utilization through high-value applications and closed-loop recycling.

Suplas uses Boretech's PET Tray Washing Syetem achieves key technological breakthroughs to address the industry pain points of high compaction, heavy adhesive contamination, and brittleness with complex impurities. Through this system, adhesive labels are effectively removed, labels and materials are efficiently separated, and PET material loss is significantly controlled. The final PET flakes excel in key indicators such as adhesive residue and PVC content, demonstrating the potential to meet food-grade application standards.

Alan Ou, Vice General Manager of Boretech, said, “The process incorporates advanced material separation technology, intensive hot washing and aspirator for label and impurity removal, minimizing PET material losses.”

He added, “Boretech has extensive experience in PET bottle recycling, supported by operational data from over 320 Boretech plastic washing and other related recycling lines that are processing more than 6.12 million tonnes of PET bottles annually. However, PET tray recycling presented new technological challenges. Through dedicated R&D and engineering efforts, we have successfully developed a complete and scalable solution for PET tray recycling.

We believe the Suplas project could serve as a technical reference for the future development of food-grade PET tray recycling in China and other markets, as regulators and brand owners continue to assess pathways toward higher recycled content and closed-loop solutions.”

Suplas is equipped with Boretech's self-developed OptiPlan Smart Factory System. The system integrates three core modules — MES, WMS, and SCADA — to deliver an end-to-end, one-stop solution for smart manufacturing. Through digital, automated, and intelligent approaches, it comprehensively improves production efficiency and management levels.

The special significance of this project lies in its achievement of a complete "tray-to-tray" closed loop — from trays back to trays — providing converters with stable, safe recycled materials. Post-consumer PET trays processed through this washing line yield high-quality flakes that can enter downstream pelletizing and solid-state polycondensation stages, with quality sufficient to return to tray production lines for manufacturing new food packaging. For tray manufacturers and brand owners facing compliance pressures, this offers a practical and viable new pathway forward.

We invite you to visit Boretech at Booth NHD16 during CHINAPLAS 2026 in Shanghai (April 21–24), where we will showcase our latest innovations. Join us for in-depth discussions on PET tray-to-tray recycling, as well as the latest industry developments and trends shaping the future of recycling.