PET film extrusion specialist IMG Group has ploughed €15 million ($17.2m) into a new Portuguese research and development hub focused on circular polymer innovation and recycled and bio-based materials.
Located at the group’s industrial site in Portalegre, the Everbio innovation hub is said to ‘bridge the gap between laboratory innovation and industrial-scale production’.
This will be achieved by bringing together IMG’s businesses Evertis (PET-based packaging films), Selenis (speciality copolyester resins), Renascis (advanced multilayer recycling) and Renewis (renewable energy).
Together, the businesses will concentrate their technological work on perPETuity, a solvent-free process that is claimed to transform complex multilayer plastics into PET flakes of greater than 99.9 per cent purity, IMG said.
The hub plans to test and mature the next generation of recycled and bio-based polymer technologies to deliver circular materials for the food, pharmaceutical, and medical packaging markets.
‘Materials should serve people’
“For nearly 70 years, this group has built its industrial capabilities on a strong belief – that materials should serve people and the planet across generations,” said Manuel Matos Gil, IMG Group president.
“Everbio is the next chapter: a hub where our polymer, packaging, recycling, and renewable energy companies bring the circular economy from concept to industrial scale.
“We are proving – across polymers, packaging, recycling, and renewable energy – that circular materials at industrial scale are no longer a future ambition; they are today’s reality.”
The project has been backed by €15m in financing from C2 Capital Partners, one of Portugal’s leading private equity firms, which has raised over €1 billion ($1.15bn) in assets.
It comes as businesses operating within the EU prepare for the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, which requires that all packaging in the EU market be recyclable by 2030.
