IVL, Coca Cola launch Philippine rPET plant

Thai petrochemical company Indorama Ventures (IVL) and Coca Cola have partnered to launch a recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) plant in the Philippines.

IVL describes the plant, called PETValue Philippines, as the largest of its kind in the southeast Asian country. PETValue will focus primarily on bottle-to-bottle recycling processes, IVL said on 14 October.

Used plastic bottles will be washed and shredded into PET flakes, which will then be converted into PET resin. The resin can be repurposed into plastic bottles, which contain post-consumer recyclate (PCR), or other forms of packaging suitable for food-contact applications.

This joint venture between IVL and Coca Cola will result in an estimated 2bn/yr more PET bottles being recycled, IVL added.

The Thai firm is expecting to spend $1.5bn to expand its recycling plants globally and is now targeting to recycle 1.5mn t/yr of PET bale by 2030, up from its previous goal of 750,000 t/yr in 2025.

Coca Cola's partnership with IVL to launch PETValue in the Philippines is in line with the beverage firm's operations in other parts of Asia. Coca Cola Vietnam announced in September that it will phase out the use of virgin polymers and transition to 100pc rPET packaging.

Coca Cola has also used recycled material in its packaging for other brands in its global portfolio. The firm in July announced that its subsidiary water brand Dasani would transition to using 100pc rPET bottles in the US.

Coca Cola has set a global target to use at least 50pc recycled material in its packaging by 2030.

By Akash Ravinran