Driving Business towards a Circular Economy
Thai plastic product manufacturer Royce Universal Co., Ltd. can recycle around 15,000 tons of post-consumer PET per year, turning it into food-contact material for packaging applications.
“We do not think plastic scrap is waste. We consider it as our resource,” explained Touchawatt Techamongkoljit, CEO of Royce Universal Co. Ltd. “Our goal is to recycle as much plastic waste as possible. In PET bottle-to-bottle recycling, we saw the opportunity to reduce the amount of plastic waste and reuse it in a way that avoids downcycling.” Royce offers certified food-grade recycled PET pellets under the brand name “PetaRoyce”. The company invested in PET bottle-to-bottle recycling technology from Austrian manufacturer Starlinger in 2023. The recoSTAR PET 165 HC iV+, installed at Royce’s production site in Nakhon Pathom Province, 50 kilometers from Bangkok, turns washed PET flakes into food-contact rPET pellets and has a production capacity of up to 1,800 kg/h.
The company uses the food-contact rPET in its sheet production. It supplies it to brand owners and beverage producers for mineral water and soft drinks in Thailand as well as in the US, Australia, and Japan. According to Touchawatt Techamongkoljit, the Thai company is working on developing a circular economy. In one of its current projects, Royce plans to expand its operations and recycle used PET bottles collected in southern Thailand. The rPET pellets would be shipped back for producing food-contact packaging in the region. “In addition, we want to enable Extended Producer Responsibility by developing a traceability system that uses blockchain technology to prevent greenwashing. These are a few of our steps to support and drive the use of sustainable recycled materials in various applications like food and beverage packaging, cosmetic packaging, or home appliances and houseware.”
Success through strategic diversification
Founded in 1970 as Thai Creative Lighting Co., Ltd. for manufacturing, importing, and distributing decorative lamps, the company diversified in the following years to include the production of furniture and household items made of plastic. In 2000, the company Royce Universal Co., Ltd. was established.
After restructuring measures in 2020, Royce Universal Co., Ltd. now acts as a corporate company for existing businesses. Its core areas are furniture and houseware, building materials, food and beverage packaging (sheet extrusion and thermoforming), and rPET production. In 2023, Royce created the brand “PetaRoyce” to market the food-contact rPET it produces on the Starlinger recycling line. Royce operates three production sites located close to each other in the town of Sam Phran, Nakhon Pathom Province in Central Thailand, and employs more than 500 people.
royceuniversal.net, starlinger.com
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 3/2025, Page 36, Photo: Royce Universal Co. Ltd.)
