Alpla invests 60 million dollars to establish a PET recycling plant in Coca-Cola FEMSA Mexico. The facility will be able to process 50,000 tons of post-consumption PET bottles annually.
The facility is a joint venture of Alpla, which provides sustainable packaging solutions and produces bottle-to-bottle recycling on a global basis, and Coca-Cola FEMSA, based in Mexico-City. In this context, the company’s plan is to build a recycling plant in Cunduacán, Tabasco, Mexico. Coca-Cola FEMSA is the bottler of Coca-Cola products operating in this region.
The Capacity of The New Recycling Plant PLANETA
The recycling facility, where an investment of 60 million dollars will be made, is called PLANETA, or Planta Nueva Ecología de Tabasco. Alpla officials said about the facility: ” The annual PET, ie polyethylene terephthalate bottle processing capacity of the facility is planned and expected to be around 35,000 tons of recycled PET output after processing 50,000 tons of PET annually.
The facility will contribute to the increase of employment in the region.
Alpla officials state that this new recycling facility, PLANETA, is planned to provide direct and indirect employment of 20,000 people in total in southeastern Mexico, both during the construction process and once operational. In this respect, it is emphasized that the initiative will be a strong employment incentive for the region. It was also announced that a total of 18 collection centers in the surrounding area and throughout Mexico will be integrated into the facility to supply the facility.
According to the statements made by Philipp Lehner, CEO of Alpla company, regarding the new recycling plant project, the biggest challenge in front of the recycling industry is the management of the stages of collecting, processing and reintroducing plastics after consumption. ” What we do is to create systems that will increase the added value of plastic packaging. Only in this way can we ensure that they are recycled. It is very important for us to establish strong partnerships with strong brands and companies. Coca-Cola FEMSA is one of them. Because only in this way can we create recycling infrastructures in many different regions. “
Recycling Capacity Increasing Investments of Alpla
Carlos Torres Ballesteros is Alpla’s managing director for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. According to Ballesteros, Alpla will have a total of three recycling facilities in Mexico with this new recycling facility. According to the company’s 15-year investment plan implemented by 2021, it is making and will increase its recycling capacity of around 50 million Euros (approximately 56 million USD) every year.
Goals of Coca-Cola FEMSA for 2030
Coca-Cola FEMSA officials also made some statements about the PLANETA project, the new recycling facility in Mexico. According to them, the company already has some sustainability commitments, and in this context, this new project fully coincides with these commitments. Coca-Cola FEMSA is part of Coca-Cola Co.’s global waste-free world initiative. The company’s 2025 goal is to ensure that all its packaging is fully recyclable by this year. In addition, the company aims to use 50% recycled PET resin in the resin contents of its packaging by 2030.
