Klӧckner Pentaplast to add rPET/PET capacity to its Beaver, West Virginia site

The multi-million dollar investment will grow the company's sustainable food packaging capabilities in North America

Klöckner Pentaplast plans a major expansion for its Beaver, West Virginia manufacturing site, increasing its capacity to produce recyclable and sustainable packaging. Photo courtesy Klöckner Pentaplast

Klöckner Pentaplast (KP), a global supplier of recycled content products and high-barrier protective packaging, has chosen its production facility in Beaver, West Virginia for its multi-million-dollar production expansion, adding post-consumer recycled content (PCR) PET capacity in North America.

The expansion will further grow KP’s sustainable innovation offering in consumer health, pharmaceutical, and food packaging markets through the addition of an extrusion line and two thermoformers, delivering a total of 15,000 metric tons of new rPET/PET capacity. KP currently produces over 20% of its materials made from PCR material.

“The expansion responds to continued demand for sustainable options from our food packaging, pharmaceutical, consumer and label film customers,” says Scott Tracey, KP’s chief executive officer. “The extrusion line will support production of important sustainable product lines such as kpNext^™ recyclable pharmaceutical blister films, and Smartcycle^® recyclable label and consumer packaging films. The thermoformers will produce KP Elite^® mono-material protein trays, which are made using up to 100% recycled PET and are easily recycled creating a circular economy.”

The addition is part of the company’s continued North America expansion plans. The state of West Virginia has committed to local grants and incentives for the expansion. The installation will add 60 jobs to the West Virginia facility with commercialization beginning at the end of 2022 for the first thermoform line. The extrusion addition will be completed in mid-2023. The completion of the second thermoform line and new production facility, which will be capable of additional capacity expansions in the future, is scheduled for the end of the fourth quarter of 2023.