Coca-Cola backs plastic recycling goals with USD60m plant

Coca-Cola is to invest over $60m in a US bottle recycling plant that it claims will be the largest plastic bottle-to bottle recycling plant in the world.

The operation, to be located at Spartanburg in South Carolina, is integral to the soft drink giant’s goal of recycling or re-using all of its PET bottles in the US market.

To be built by Coca-Cola and United Resource Recovery Corporation, the new facility will produce 45,000tpa of food-grade recycled PET.

The 120,000 sq metre site will open next year and be in full operational by 2009, the Atlanta-based group says. It forms part of a global recycling programme for the company’s bottles which has seen investments in Switzerland, Mexico, Austria and the Philippines.

Coca-Cola estimates that over the next ten years, the Spartanburg operation will eliminate the production of one million tonnes of C0₂ emissions – the equivalent of removing 21,500 cars from the road.

As it seeks to raise the availability of bottles for its recycling projects, Coca-Cola is expanding its relationship with kerbside collection organisations, notably RecycleBank, which plans to cover 100,000 homes by 2009 through expanding its collection service.

Coca-Cola also offers a line of merchandise made from recycled PET.