Bage Plastics: Supporting a closed loop economy

Tackling climate change and ensuring environmental sustainability are two public policy objectives that can be considered to have marked our times. Beyond public policy, however, integrating these objectives into a viable business plan is a challenge in itself. Bage plastics do exactly that.

Established in 2014, bage plastics is an innovative company that specialises in recycling shredded fridge plastics and processing them into high-value plastic granules and compounds which can entirely replace primary raw materials in a wide variety of plastics products, such as plant containers, office trays, electrical equipment or new fridges.

This translates into reduced costs but also a production process that is more environmentally friendly and sustainable. As Ms. Luisa Bernardi, Head of Marketing, explains, “the company’s vision is that plastic recycling is acting on behalf of the environment. That’s why we see our mission in supporting a closed loop economy, by maximizing recycling and recovery of materials and by minimising waste and reducing the environmental footprint.”

Bage plastics’ business is growing rapidly, ranking them among the largest European fridge recycling companies. Their two production sites in Upper Austria are already running at full capacity, working with plastic from around 1.5m old fridges per year sourced from Austria, Germany, Italy and France, and a third one is being planned.

But the company’s young age and fast growth worked against them when they went to local banks to ask for a loan to finance the purchase of new machinery. “Despite our strong performance, the banks were not willing to take any risks. At the end of the day, they told us that a guarantee was a precondition for the loan” explains Ms. Bernardi. Bage plastics turned to aws, who offered to guarantee the loan with the backing of EIF and the EU. This unlocked the necessary financing and has since allowed the company to buy the new machinery they needed to keep up with the high demand.

Company: Bage Plastics (Austria)

Type of business: Recycling, environment

EIF financing: COSME - Loan Guarantee Facility (LGF)

Financial intermediary: Austria Wirtschaftsservice Gesellschaft (aws)

For further information about EIF intermediaries in Austria, please refer to: http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/at/index.htm