From North America back to Austria: closing the loop for used PET strapping

AT Packaging was one of the first partners to actively engage in the collection of used plastic strapping and to contribute to a truly circular material flow with better.collect.

Established in 1986, Emballages AT / AT Packaging is a distributor of packaging materials based in Montreal, Canada. Since 2015, the company has been supplying Teufelberger strapping solutions to customers across the Canadian and US American market, with a strong focus on the wood industry.

The challenge there: high performance strapping in a demanding application

In the wood industry, sawn timber is bundled using PET strapping before being placed in industrial drying chambers. Depending on the type of wood, these drying processes last between 5 and 48 hours at temperatures of up to 200°F (94°C). After drying, the straps are removed and the timber packages are re-strapped for transport by road, rail or container.

This results in significant amounts of high-quality used PET strapping, material that deserves a second life rather than disposal.

The solution: Material Collection with better.collect

In 2020, AT Packaging began systematically collecting used PET strapping from its customers under the name of AT RECYK. Initially, the collected material was sold to interested parties overseas. That changed with the further development of better.collect. A direct material line was established and since 2025, the used PET strapping collected from AT Packaging has been returned directly to Austria, where it is reintegrated into Teufelberger’s strapping production process.

The Result: Win Win situation

Since 2025, 102 tonnes of used PET strapping have been collected in Canada and the US market from AT’s customers. These are fully shipped back to Europe and already processed into new PET strapping products at Teufelberger.
This success story demonstrates how international collaboration, smart material collection and innovative recycling concepts can turn used strapping into a valuable raw material – and transform waste into a resource.
With partners like AT Packaging, better.collect proves that closed-loop solutions for plastic strapping are not just a vision, but a reality.