SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — Sydney-based Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd. is spending more than A$20 million (US$13 million) on a plant and equipment to recycle 26 million pounds of post-consumer PET bottles per year, using a U.S.-developed recycling process.
The process cleans post-consumer flake into food-container-grade resin. It was developed by Phoenix Technologies LP, a Bowling Green, Ohio, PET recycler. The firm is an arm of Plastics Technologies Inc., which does PET preform and bottle design and recycling research and development. The process now is owned by CCA.
Ian Twaddle, CCA general manager for beverage packaging, said the new plant will be in the Sydney suburb of Liverpool.
The plant is scheduled to begin operations by mid-1999. The project had been under development for about three years, he said.
Twaddle said although CCA previously had incorporated some recycled content in PET bottles, the current venture will allow 25 percent recycled content, the firm's most concerted effort to date.
``Recycling is a keystone in our move into self-manufacturing, whereby we will supply all of CCA's PET bottle requirements,'' Twaddle said.
``We can't eliminate virgin waste, but we believe the Phoenix process will allow bottles to be recycled almost perpetually — time will tell.''