South Africa takes ‘exciting’ rPET leap

South Africa – The first Bottle-2-Bottle recycling plant in Africa has been opened by South Africa’s minister of environmental affairs Edna Molewa in Wadeville, Johannesburg. The ZAR 75 million (US$ 6 million) facility will produce resin suitable for the carbonated drinks sector.

The 3000m² plant was installed by Extrupet and features Starlinger technology. Promoted as the first on the continent to use a ‘Coca-Cola approved technology’ for soft drink bottles, the facility will supply an additional 14 000 tonnes of PET resin per year to the packaging industry and will eventually divert an additional 22 000 tonnes of post-consumer PET bottles from landfills on an annual basis to ensure a 50% recycling target for 2015 is met.

‘We are extremely excited about the fact that South Africa will be the first country on the continent to use rPET for Coca-Cola products,’ says Casper Durandt, chairman of PETCO and franchise technical director of Coca-Cola Southern Africa. ‘We have made every effort to ensure that we maintain the highest quality standards.’