With the shared goal of making a more sustainable future happen today, Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines, Inc. (CCBPI)—the bottling arm of Coca-Cola in the country—and Thailand-headquartered Indorama Ventures have signed a joint-venture agreement to establish PETValue, the largest state-of-the-art, a bottle-to-bottle recycling facility in the Philippines.
The P1-billion, next-generation facility will be established in General Trias, Cavite, and is expected to be completed in 2021. Gareth McGeown, CEO of CCBPI, said, “Cavite being the site of such a crucial infrastructure to our World Without Waste goal is testament to the province’s commitment to help advance the country’s environmental goals. We would like to thank Governor Jonvic Remulla and his constituents, the Caviteños who are opening their communities to this facility.”
PETValue will help ensure that used PET plastic bottles—packaging that is 100% recyclable, and therefore not “single-use”—will be given new life and function as they are collected, processed, and used again and again within a circular economy.
PETValue will deploy cutting-edge technologies and industry-leading best practices to employ the safest and most advanced recycling process for plastic bottles made from PET (polyethylene terephthalate) material. Its projected capacity, or the amount of used plastic bottles it can process, is 30,000 MT / year or almost 2 billion pieces of plastic bottles, with an output of 16,000 MT / year of recycled PET resin.
Indorama Ventures’ global footprint spans over 70 manufacturing sites in over 30 countries and employs over 24,000 people worldwide. From its inception in 1975, Indorama Ventures has developed numerous business segments, subsequently becoming the largest producer of polyester products and polyester feedstocks. It has also since established its global leadership in PET plastic manufacturing and recycling. And through this partnership with Coca-Cola, the biggest beverage brand in the world, Indorama Ventures will be bringing their expertise as a global integrated leader in recycling to the Philippines.
“We are very proud of our partnership with Indorama Ventures; they’ve been helping us with innovative initiatives on sustainable packaging—from light-weighting efforts that allow us to lessen the amount of plastic we use in our packaging, to developing the country’s the first-ever beverage bottle made from 100% recycled plastic,” shared McGeown. “Through PETValue, Indorama Ventures and Coca-Cola are introducing to the Philippines green technologies that will help strengthen Filipino’s commitment to sustainability—a major step in making our World Without Waste vision a reality in the Philippines.”
McGeown added, “Through this facility, we will boost the collection rates of clear plastic bottles—collecting not just Coca-Cola bottles, but even ones from other companies. The facility will also support Filipino jobs as well as the livelihoods of people within the waste value chain.”
Indorama Ventures is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), in keeping with their thrust for growth that rests on positive environmental and social continuity.
“Indorama Ventures has always been committed to sustainability, and to ensuring that the technologies we use are advanced, efficient, and meet or even surpass industry standards so that we can better manage our environmental impact,” said Yashovardhan Lohia, Chief Recycling Officer of Indorama Ventures. “We firmly believe that a circular economy for plastic bottles, particularly PET plastic bottles, is possible and must be established. We cannot let the potential of this recyclable resource go to waste. This is a philosophy shared by Coca-Cola, and our partnership with them is testament to how two organizations that share the same principles can institutionalize sustainability practices among industries and be of benefit to local communities."
Coca-Cola’s World Without Waste goal is the company’s commitment to collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle and can it sells by 2030. The PETValue facility will be yet another concretization of Coca-Cola’s comprehensive sustainability blueprint, one that creates positive inroads towards a circular economy.
