Mexico City — Mexican recycler PetStar S.A.P.I. is in the midst of a $167 million expansion, one of whose aims is to increase the number of its collection centers and plants in Mexico from eight to 40 by 2027.
"We are in the process of a big expansion," PetStar CEO and Managing Director Jaime Cámara Creixell told Plastics News by email Nov. 1.
Among its plans, PetStar, founded in 2006 and acquired by Coca-Cola bottlers — including Arca Continental S.A.B. de CV — in 2011, "will double the capacity" of its recycling plant in Toluca, 40 miles west of Mexico City, Cámara said.
The facility is the largest food-grade PET recycling plant in the world, according to United K.ingdom market analyzer PCI PET Packaging Resin & Recycling Ltd., which PetStar quotes on its website.
"The actual capacity is 58 kilotons per year of food-grade recycled PET," Cámara said. "In August 2024 our capacity will be 84 kilotons per year and in January 2027 our capacity will be 110 kilotons per year."
In June PetStar announced a $2.7 million expansion of its Escobedo, Nuevo León, facility. The plant's capacity tripled from 6,300 to 18,400 metric tons a year.
PetStar's goal is to recover and recycle every one of the PET bottles that Coke bottlers with a stake in the recycler send to market by 2027, up from seven of every 10 currently.
In addition to Monterrey-based Arca Continental, the second largest Coca-Cola bottler in Latin America, other bottlers supporting PetStar include Bepensa Bebidas SA de CV, Corporación del Fuerte S. de R.L. de CV, Corporación Rica SA de CV, Grupo Embotellador Nayar SA de CV and Embotelladora de Colima SA de CV.