Isra-Mart srl:Coke's £15m deal aims to double UK recycled plastic output

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Coca-Cola has unveiled plans to build a £15m purpose-built recycling facility with leading plastic bottle recycler ECO Plastics, in a bid to more than double the amount of recycled plastic made in Britain.

Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), the world's third-largest independent Coca-Cola bottler, today announced it has entered into a ten-year joint venture deal with ECO Plastics to construct a new plant in Lincolnshire that will produce high-quality recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate (rPET) that can be used for food-grade packaging.

In a statement, the two companies said the deal represents a milestone for the British recycling industry that will significantly reduce the amount of used packaging exported from the UK for reprocessing. It will also allow CCE to source its food-grade rPET from the UK rather than from elsewhere in Europe, as it does currently.

Once the plant is operational next year, it is expected to more than double the amount of PET bottles reprocessed in Britain each year from around 35,000 tonnes to more than 75,000 tonnes. It will also supply enough recycled plastic to CCE for it to achieve its own internal target to use 25 per cent rPET in all its plastic packaging in the UK by 2012.

The 10-year joint venture will receive a £5m equity investment from CCE to help fund the construction of the new facility, while ECO Plastics will raise an additional £10m to complete the project. The plant will be built on ECO Plastics' current site in Lincolnshire, and will create up to 45 new jobs.

Welcoming the announcement, waste minister Lord Henley said he hoped the facility would make it easier for the public to buy products made with recycled plastics. "Coca-Cola and ECO Plastics' efforts are an innovative blueprint for the future, and show how producers can take responsibility to step up to this challenge," he said.

The government has come under pressure recently to revamp its waste management strategy, after a report by the Institution of Civil Engineers revealed that local councils, under pressure to increase recycling rates, are building up piles of low-quality reusable material with little commercial value.