Coca Cola considers building Indonesian recycling plant, slashing 25,000 tons of plastic

(The Jakarta Post/ANN)---Soft drinks manufacturer Coca Cola Amatil Indonesia (Amatil) is looking into developing a plastic bottle recycling facility in one of the world’s top plastic polluting countries.

The company said on Friday it had signed a deal with plastic packaging maker Dynapack Asia to conduct a feasibility study on developing the facility. The soft drinks maker also said it aimed to cut consumption of new plastic resin by up to 25,000 tons a year by 2022 by using recycled plastic.

The statement did not mention Amatil’s total annual new plastic resin consumption. However, a 2019 report shows that the Coca-Cola Company produced 3 million tons of plastic packaging in 2017, the highest among 31 companies listed in the report.

“It is a significant step toward Amatil becoming self-sustaining in the plastic materials we use, ensuring a closed-loop for plastic beverage packaging in Indonesia as a whole,” said Amatil president director Kadir Gunduz in a statement.

Dynapack Asia president director Tirtadjaja Hambali said the packaging manufacturer was committed to using at least 25 percent recycled plastic in its production starting 2025, as part of its commitment to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Indonesia aims to slash plastic waste output by 70 percent by 2025, as per the country’s contribution to the global National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP). The Southeast Asian country is the world’s second-largest marine plastic debris polluter behind China, a 2015 study reported.