Coca-Cola is testing technology in Europe which turns difficult-to-recycle plastic into new bottles as part of its effort to meet its sustainability goals.
The company’s largest European bottler, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners,
is funding a startup in the Netherlands that will produce food-grade recycled plastic from plastics that are usually sent to landfills or incinerated – such as film, trays, clothing and colorful packaging. This will create an additional source of recycled material. Current supplies of recycled plastic are expensive and limited, which keeps companies hooked on plentiful, cheaper oil as a key ingredient in packaging production.
“This new technology is critical to improving access to recycled material for bottles,” said Wouter Vermeulen, senior director of sustainability and public policy for Coca-Cola Europe. “The Coca-Cola system is committed to reducing our dependence on petroleum to produce virgin packaging materials and to promote recycling.”
Coca-Cola aims to increase the proportion of recycled materials that make up its packaging to 50% by 2030. The group of soft drinks has reached around 25% so far.
The company needs its bottlers to use more recycled materials to meet its own sustainability goals. “We just don’t have the necessary levels [of recycled plastic]”, said Joe Franses, Vice President of Sustainability at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners.
Startup CuRe Technology’s new process cleans and partially decomposes plastics for reassembly into recycled material. Its so-called partial depolymerization method removes the color from the polyester, transforming it into clear polyethylene terephthalate – or PET – wafers. A CuRe study committee said its process results in about 65% less greenhouse gas emissions than producing new petroleum-based plastic. Coca-Cola Europacific Partners invested in CuRe in 2020 and again this year.
CuRe has been sending samples to Coca-Cola in Atlanta for testing, and if it continues to meet quality standards, it’s possible the recycled plastic could find its way to other markets.
“Currently, we are focused on scaling CuRe’s technology right for use in Europe as a first priority, before seeing how it could benefit other markets,” said Vermeulen of Coca-Cola.
By 2025, a factory is expected to produce around 25,000 metric tons of recycled plastic per year. Coca-Cola Europacific Partners will source a significant amount of this production, but it will represent a fraction of their raw material, currently around 200,000 metric tons of polyester per year in Europe. If the plant meets expectations, the bottler will build a larger plant before the end of the decade.
Packaging accounts for around 40% of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners’ carbon footprint, largely due to the use of virgin petroleum-based plastic. The goal is to stop using petroleum to produce plastic bottles by 2030. Last year, nearly half of its bottles were made from recycled plastic and bioplastic.
At the turn of the next decade, Mr. Franses of Coca-Cola Europacific Partners predicts that technologies like CuRe’s will provide about 25% of the bottling company’s needs, while traditional recycling methods will satisfy about 70%. He expects the recycled plastic provided by CuRe’s method to be equivalent or not significantly more expensive than current recycled plastic, which can be 50% more expensive than plastic made from petroleum.
“I’m not going to stand here in 2023 and say we have a complete roadmap that will get us there,” Franses said. “What I am really confident about is that the business has made the right investments.”
Write to Dieter Holger at dieter.holger@wsj.com
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