UK RECYCLING
Coca-Cola and ECO Plastics to develop new recycling plant / Facility will more than double the country's PET reprocessing capacity / “Innovative blueprint for the future”
In a deal that has been heralded as a harbinger of change for the UK’s plastics recycling and reprocessing industry, Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE, Uxbridge, Middlesex / UK; www.cokecce.co.uk) has established a joint venture with plastic bottle recycler ECO Plastics (Hemswell, Lincolnshire / UK; www.ecoplasticsltd.com) to develop a new recycling plant.

The new plant is to be built on ECO Plastics’ existing site in Lincolnshire, and scheduled for start-up in 2012. Once operational, it will churn out 40,000 t/y of high-quality rPET – more than double the UK’s existing PET bottle reprocessing capacity, currently at 35,000 t/y. Under the terms of the deal, CCE is to make a GPB 5m equity investment to go towards the new facility’s construction, whereas ECO Plastics is to raise another GBP 10m in funding for the project. In addition, CCE has signed a 10-year deal that guarantees it an annual supply of rPET.

The jv will thus aid CCE in its target of including 25% of rPET in all its UK plastic packaging by 2012. Parent company Coca-Cola (Atlanta / USA; www.thecoca-colacompany.com) recently touted plans for all its bottles to use sugar-based polymer in 2020 – see Plasteurope.com of 10.02.2011 – whereas ECO Plastics announced plans to focus its activities on producing rPET suitable for food applications – see Plasteurope.com of 03.01.2011. The huge market opportunities for food-grade recovered plastics in the UK had been outlined earlier last year by a report issued by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP, Banbury / UK; www.wrap.org.uk) – see Plasteurope.com of 27.08.2010.

The deal is the first of its kind for the British drinks manufacturing industry and will bring UK recycling full circle, “as used British packaging will be recycled in Lincolnshire for reuse in packaging that will then be sold in Britain.” The joint venture was welcomed by the UK government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra, London; www.defra.gov.uk), with waste minister Lord Henley saying: “Coca-Cola and ECO Plastics’ efforts are an innovative blueprint for the future.”
10.03.2011 Plasteurope.com 831 [218815-0]
Published on 10.03.2011
Coca-Cola: Britisches JV  für PET-FlaschenrecyclingGerman version of this article...

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