Coca-Cola to recycle all its US plastic bottles

The announcement in the US coincided with a new Coca Cola initiative in the UK to promote the recycling of plastic bottles by football fans.

The company said yesterday it was investing $60 million (about £30 million) to support recycling in the US and build what it claims will be the world’s largest plastic bottle to plastic bottle recycling plant.

It said the new facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina, would be part of a “comprehensive goal to recycle or reuse 100% of the company’s PET plastic bottles in the US”.

Sandy Douglas, president of Coca Cola North America, said: “We have set an ambitious goal to recycle or re-use all the plastic bottles in the US market. Our investments in recycling infrastructure, coupled with our work on sustainable package design, will help us reach this target.”

Plant

Coca Cola is to develop the new recycling plant with its long-time partner United Resource Recovery Corporation (URRC) at the 30-acre site in Spartanburg, where URRC headquarters is located.

The facility will use URRC’s “Hybrid UnPET” process of chemically super-cleaning PET flake for food-grade packaging, developed back in 1994. The new plant could be up and running in 2008, and fully up to speed a year later.

It will be designed to produce about 45,000 tonnes of food-grade PET plastic each year – more than twice the total amount of plastics used to make Coke bottles for the British market.

Coca Cola said recycling plastic would yield financial benefits including lower energy costs compared to using virgin materials, as well as giving environmental advantages such as a reduction in waste and greenhouse gas emissions. The Spartanburg plant will achieve the equivalent cut in carbon dioxide emissions of taking 21,500 cars off the roads over the next decade, the company claimed.

Mr Douglas said: “The long-term sustainability of our business depends on our ability to ensure the sustainability of our packaging. This new recycling facility represents a significant milestone as we work to advance recycling in the US and ensure a strong end market for our PET packaging.”

Collection

The company formed a special recycling division – Coca Cola Recycling LLC in November 2006 to develop cost-effective recycling systems for packaging materials including plastic, aluminium, cardboard and plastic film. The firm intends to establish centralised recycling centres throughout the US, it said.

It will also invest in kerbside collection companies, including the firm RecycleBank, which operates in New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and is to expand services to New York, Vermont and Massachusetts by the end of 2007. In Philadelphia, the scheme has seen recycling rates for plastic bottles shooting up from 15% to more than 50%, while participation rates have reached as high as 90%.

A national rollout of the RecycleBanks service is on the cards for 2009 thanks to the Coca Cola support. “RecycleBank makes recycling easier and more convenient for consumers,” explained Coca Cola director of sustainable packaging Scott Vitters.

The moves in the US come as part of a worldwide effort by the company to increase the recycling of its bottles, including investments in recycling facilities in Switzerland, Mexico, Austria and the Philippines.

Coca Cola has been using recycled content in its bottles in 17 countries since the first bottle was made with recycled materials in 1991.

UK

In the UK, Coca Cola has already been involved with WRAP in trials recycling PET plastic bottles back into food-grade plastics (see letsrecycle.com story).

Yesterday saw the launch of the “Talent from Trash” initiative, which will offer football clubs in the Football League funding for youth development depending on how many fans they get to pledge to recycle.

Some 13 football clubs and local authorities are involved in the initiative, which aims to increase recycling rates of all materials locally by 4% in return for cash prizes of up to £18,000. One lucky fan will win £10,000 for their club and £5,000 for themselves for pledging to get recycling.

The scheme will help Cola Cola to develop wider plans for encouraging consumer recycling in 2008, it said. Sanjay Guha, president of Coca Cola Great Britain, said: “We hope the incentives and appeal of ‘Talent from Trash’ will help encourage football fans and their families to get involved in recycling for the benefit of the environment and their local football club.”