Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Plastics News Europe
  • Plastics & Rubber World
  • Plastics News China
  • Rubber & Plastics News
logo-pn-color
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • End Markets
    • FYI Charts
    • LSR World
    • NPE 2018
    • Top materials of injection molders
      Recycled PET use by product category
      US PET, flexible packaging desintations
      Global fluropolymers additives market: CAGR
    • Who doesn't like football? And pets?
      Donnelly adds press for complex parts
      Carteaux's legacy: Saving and transforming the Plastics Industry Association
      'A constant champion for our industry'
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Plastics News Now
    • Processor of the Year
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Bumper to Bumper
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
  • Multimedia
    • Videos
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
  • Opinion
    • Viewpoint
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • 2019: The year the business cycle caught up to plastics machinery
      Turning a recycling nightmare into a success story
      Unlikely story of how a plastic survey marker brought people together
      Auto industry changes look like bad news for toolmakers
    • What makes a company attractive for acquisition?
      How plastics manufacturers are maximizing existing machinery
      Trademarks of the successful packaging supplier
      Molding innovations come from partnerships
    • A workable solution?
      Slower growth won't mean less M&A activity
      Skibbereen correct to stop RTP compounding plant
      Container fee a 'public relations gimmick'
    • Hubertz focused on finding new business for Wisconsin's Vision Plastics
      Photos by Don Loepp
      Busy times for Mike Walter at Met2Plastic
      Plastic Parts Inc. photos by Don Loepp. Jill has the dark sweater
      ‘Scientific mindset' works for Wisconsin's Plastic Parts
      Partnerships help i2tech keep growing
  • Blogs
    • In Motion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Pop Goes Plastics
    • Behind the lens
    • Heavy Metal
    • One Good Resin
    • NO. 7
    • From Pillar to Post
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • A 30-year-old plastics millennial
      Need skilled workers? Maybe you're looking in the wrong places
      Pondering the potential of exposure to the skilled trades
      Generations change with time, but we all share one thing in common
    • Plastics News journalists honored for outstanding work
      Forget about the mousetrap. Who can build better sustainability?
      'They didn't mean to be discriminatory'
      Plastics News welcomes reader opinions
    • Kickstart: The Sustainability Bowl
      Kickstart: Picture women in charge
      Kickstart: Living in a material world
      Kickstart: The Island of Misfit Toys
    • I’ve seen our strawless future. And it’s just fine
      South Africa takes on straws, plastics waste
      California's straw law gains interest
      DC straw ban enforcement and January usage totals
    • A 30-year plastics veteran
      An expert on workplace shootings warns: 'Lightning can strike anywhere'
      Public companies see opportunity in plastics machinery
      Celebrating National Adirondack chair day? Why not? It's all American!
    • PolyOne's Patterson recognized by University of Michigan
      Lubrizol, Maroon Group show support for science education
      MAPP awards top firms for innovation and education
      Polymers of a feather stick together at University of Akron
    • A sustainable lid for your lid (read the footnotes if you're confused)
      Berry, Sabic join forces in chemical recycling
      Recycling? For Gerber, it's child's play
      Canada and the work toward a greener legal marijuana industry
    • Raise the roof: Housing starts hit a 12-year high
      Finding a place for polymer siding in New Urbanism
      Uponor's new manufacturing plant honored again
    • Kickstart: Holy LCA Batman!
      Plastics industry's top issues on display at Chinaplas
      Basel talks consider changes to plastic scrap trade
    • The state with the most compounders? Here's a hint
      A peek behind the data in our 2019 ranking of North American blow molders
      Turning anecdotes on women-owned companies into data
      Signs of fall: Pumpkin spice, falling leaves, mold making report
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Webinars/Live Streams
    • Plastics News Live
    • Become a Speaker
    • Women Breaking The Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive 2020
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
  • Resin Resources
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Datasheets
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • K Show
  • More+
    • Data Store
    • Classifieds
    • Newsletters
    • Directory
    • Digital Edition
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
September 10, 2007 02:00 AM

Planned Coke plant concerns reclaimers

Mike Verespej
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print

    Plastics reclaimers are giving mixed reviews to Coca-Cola Co.'s commitment to build a 100 million-pound food-grade PET recycling plant in Spartanburg, S.C., and its long-term goal to recover or reuse all the PET it puts into the U.S. market.

    The $45 million plant, a joint venture with Spartanburg-based United Resource Recovery Corp., is part of a $60 million recycling initiative Coca-Cola announced at a Sept. 5 news conference in Washington. The plant, to be called NURRC, for New United Resource Recovery Corp., will begin operating in September 2008 with a 40 million-pound line. A second 40 million-pound line is likely to start six to 12 months later, and a third line eventually will be added to process 20 million pounds.

    The news came a day after Coca-Cola announced that 250-275 employees will be laid off at its Atlanta headquarters. Those employees will get preference in applying for 150 new management jobs Coke created as part of its recent restructuring, according to the soft drink giant.

    Coca-Cola's profit has not kept pace with sales growth during the past two years, rising only 4.8 percent since 2004, despite a sales increase of nearly 11 percent to more than $24 billion in that period. According to the newsletter ``Beverage Digest,'' volume Coke sales in the U.S. have been declining since 2000 and Diet Coke sales declined, for the first time ever, in 2006.

    Meanwhile, Coca-Cola is looking to shrink its PET usage through packaging redesigns. A new Coke bottle design in the U.S., introduced Sept. 4, will cut the firm's domestic PET usage by 100 million pounds a year - which equals the amount of PET that Coke now recycles annually in the U.S.

    Coca-Cola's investment in the Spartanburg plant is in part an equity stake and in part a loan to URCC to build the plant, which reportedly will be the largest of its type in the world. Coke has similar investments in PET recycling plants in Mexico, Switzerland, the Philippines and Austria.

    The proposed plant concerns a number of PET reclaimers, because Coca-Cola has said that, initially, it must buy 90 percent of the material it needs to operate the plant. Reclaimers are worried that the new plant will make business conditions more difficult for them.

    ``Will the plant make supply tighter?'' one reclaimer asked. ``How could it not? Where will they get the material and who are they going to take it from? How are they going to save money if it forces prices up and there already is a shortage of materials?''

    A reclaimer in the eastern U.S. agreed: ``How could it possibly help reclaimers? It is scary. You have to think that it will make things more difficult for us. The announcements seem politically motivated just to get good press for themselves. The plant investment doesn't make sense.''

    ``This will create a new demand for 100 million pounds of material,'' said a recycling executive who asked not to be identified. ``There is already a supply problem, so this will further exacerbate that. It is going to drive up the price of recycled PET.''

    Coca-Cola said one of its reasons for building the plant is to reduce its exposure to the price volatility in the market.

    URRC President Carlos Gutierrez said Coke currently plans to buy 60 percent of the Spartanburg plant's output of recycled food-grade PET flake. The rest will be sold to others. Coca-Cola will use post-consumer curbside material, not deposit bottles, as raw material for the plant, Gutierrez said. Coke did not address the issue, but several reclaimers said the soft drink firm sells the deposit bottles because it is a better revenue stream.

    The plant will boost URRC employment at Spartanburg from 35 to 150, by the addition of grinding and sorting operations to process baled PET.

    Some industry observers wonder whether Coke's investments in the recycling infrastructure really will boost PET recycling rates in the U.S. - which have fallen to 23 percent from almost 39 percent in 1994.

    ``The weak link in recycling isn't the lack of processing so much as the lack of relatively clean collected material to process,'' said Betty McLaughlin, executive director of the Container Recycling Institute in Washington. ``The plastics recyclers who have been going begging for the limited amounts of material that are collected and have been competing with the Asian markets would probably prefer to see Coke investing in collection rather than competing with them.''

    In that regard, Coca-Cola pledged financial support to help Philadelphia-based RecycleBank - a program that has expanded household recycling in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania - grow nationwide. Currently 100,000 households participate in RecycleBank's program and the program plans to expand into New England in the fall.

    ``After that, we are looking at Illinois, the Southeast region and the West Coast,'' said RecycleBank President and co-founder Ron Gonen. ``Our focus is the 25 largest markets in North America,'' with a target of 1 million households by 2009.''

    Coca-Cola also has committed to boosting its internal recycling by establishing a number of centralized collection centers for its retail customers and suppliers through its Coca-Cola Recycling LLC joint venture with its largest bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises. Those efforts, however, will focus on materials generated internally, and Coke did not disclose details of how it will proceed with the project. Neither did the company set a specific timetable for 100 percent recovery of materials.

    Also, Coke did not increase its commitment of using recycled content in PET containers for soft drinks, water and teas, to the disappointment of some in the industry.

    ``We have no fixed timetable,'' for reaching that goal, said Jeff Seabright, vice president of environment and water resources at Coca-Cola.

    ``It is a very laudable goal,'' said one industry executive. ``But when you don't set a timetable, what good is it?''

    Seabright said Coke currently recycles about 10 percent of the 1 billion pounds of PET it annually puts into the marketplace and the company hopes to recycle or reuse 30 percent by 2010. Others dispute the amount of PET that Coca-Cola uses annually, putting it at twice as much as the firm claims.

    Coke's goal, Seabright said, is to have ``more than 10 percent'' recycled content in its PET beverage containers by 2010. But that level only matches what it had achieved in 2004 and 2005, before sliding back to less than 5 percent in 2006.

    ``We want to move as aggressively as we can,'' he said. He added that in Switzerland, Coke uses 50 percent recycled content in its PET bottles.

    Supply is always an issue for plastic recyclers, said Steve Alexander, executive director of the Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers in Washington. APR ``welcomes any announcement that helps to move the need from a supply and demand standpoint, emphasizes the need for more collection of material and stimulates markets for post-consumer resin,'' he said. ``We are hopeful that this announcement impacts all three of those areas.''

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    Injection molding machinery makers adapt to chronic uncertainty
    New owners in place at PolySource
    Designers, engineers had to learn each other's language to create exposed V-8
    Bekum America growing in Michigan with facility expansion
    Hood Packaging buying TC Transcontinetal's paper and woven PP operations
    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    logo-pn-color
    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Plastics News Europe
    • PRW
    • LSR World
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Plastics News China
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    Copyright © 1996-2019. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Plastics News Now
        • Processor of the Year
        • Numbers that Matter
        • Bumper to Bumper
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • FYI Charts
        • Current FYI
      • LSR World
      • NPE 2018
    • Multimedia
      • Videos
      • Galleries
      • Podcasts
    • Opinion
      • Viewpoint
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • Blogs
      • In Motion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Pop Goes Plastics
      • Behind the lens
      • Heavy Metal
      • One Good Resin
      • NO. 7
      • From Pillar to Post
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Women Breaking The Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive 2020
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
      • Industry Events
      • Webinars/Live Streams
      • Plastics News Live
      • Become a Speaker
    • Resin Resources
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
      • Datasheets
    • Rankings
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • K Show
    • More+
      • Data Store
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified
      • Newsletters
      • Directory
      • Digital Edition