Coca-Cola Partnership Transforms Hard-to-Recycle Plastic Into Bottle

The process produces 65% lower greenhouse gas emissions, when compared with oil-based plastic production.

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): As part of the company’s efforts to boost its sustainability initiatives, leading soft drinks group Coca-Cola has partnered on a new technology that converts hard-to-recycle plastics into new bottles.

According to reports, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners is funding CuRe Technology- a start-up firm in the Netherlands, to trial a process that will produce food-grade recycled plastic from plastics that are otherwise incinerated or landfilled.

The new process cleanses and partially breaks down plastics, which are then reassembled into recycled material. The partial depolymerisation process removes colour from polyester, thus producing clear PET pellets. The process produces 65% lower greenhouse gas emissions, when compared with oil-based plastic production.

The plant is expected to produce nearly 25,000 metric tons of recycled plastic per annum by 2025, majority of which will be supplied to Coca-Cola. If the recycled plastic from the plant meets expectations, Coca-Cola will build a larger plant before end-2030.

Wouter Vermeulen, Coca-Cola’s senior director of sustainability and public policy in Europe noted that the new technology is critical to improve access to recycled material for bottles. The project will help the company in achieving the previously stated goal of having at least 50% recycled materials content in its packaging by 2030.

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