Coca Cola PH, partner putting up P1-B recycling facility

Coca-Cola has partnered with one of the world’s largest producers of plastic bottles to put a P1 billion recycling facility, which will be the largest of its kind here in the Philippines.

Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines Inc. (CCBPI), the bottling arm of Coca-Cola in the country, signed a joint venture agreement with Indorama Ventures to put up the facility called PETValue, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

PETValue, a name coined after a kind of plastic, will be the largest state-of-the-art bottle-to-bottle recycling facility in the country. Construction of the facility in General Trias, Cavite, is expected to be completed next year.

The facility will have a capacity to recycle 30,000 metric tons (MT) of used plastic bottles a year, or almost 2 million plastic bottles. Out of this, it will be able to yield 16,000 MT of recycled bottles yearly.

CCBPI said PETValue would deploy cutting-edge technologies and industry-leading best practices to employ the safest and most advanced recycling process for plastic bottles made from PET (polyethylene terephthalate) material.

“Through this facility, we will boost the collection rates of clear plastic bottles—collecting not just Coca-Cola bottles, but even those from other companies,” said Gareth McGeown, CEO of CCBPI.

This is in line with the company’s global campaign called the World Without Waste. Its goal is to collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle and can it sells by 2030.

Chemicals producer Indorama Ventures had put up its first PET facility in 1995, according to the company website.

In essence, used bottles are sorted, sterilized and crushed into small flakes that, when melted, can be made into something else—such as bottles.

It is this experience that Indorama brings to the table in partnering with Coca-Cola, the biggest beverage brand in the world.

“Indorama Ventures has always been committed to sustainability, and to ensuring that the technologies we use are advanced, efficient, and meet or even surpass industry standards so that we can better manage our environmental impact,” said Yashovardhan Lohia, chief recycling officer of Indorama Ventures.

“We firmly believe that a circular economy for plastic bottles, particularly PET plastic bottles, is possible and must be established. We cannot let the potential of this recyclable resource go to waste,” he added. INQ