US drinks giant extends deal with Ioniqa / Dutch firm set to launch factory producing high-quality food-grade rPETA loan from the US drinks giant will allow Ioniqa to accelerate the development of high-grade rPET for use in Coca-Cola?s plastic bottles (Photo: Coca-Cola)
Coca-Cola (Atlanta / USA;
www.coca-colacompany.com) has extended an agreement to support the development of Dutch specialist plastics firm
Ioniqa?s (Eindhoven / The Netherlands;
www.ioniqa.com) technology to produce high-grade, recycled PET content from hard-to-recycle PET waste.
Ioniqa has developed a proprietary recycling method that can convert difficult-to-recycle PET-containing waste such as coloured bottles into purified polymer building blocks that can be later re-formed into high quality PET. The company is currently building its first PET plastic upcycling factory in the Netherlands at Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Geleen. In summer 2019, it expects to be able to begin converting PET waste at the facility into pure rPET raw material for new food packaging, with an annual output goal of 10,000 t.
The Coca-Cola deal, financial terms of which were not revealed, is the latest move for Ioniqa. In April 2018, the company teamed up with
Unilever (Rotterdam / The Netherlands;
www.unilever.com) and plastics manufacturing giant
Indorama (Jakarta / Indonesia;
www.indorama.com) to develop a technology that converts PET waste into food-grade material ? see Plasteurope.com of
12.04.2018.
Coca-Cola?s chief innovation officer
Robert Long said, ?Our investment in new and pioneering recycling technologies is an opportunity for significant movement toward closing the loop and creating a circular economy for PET,? while Ioniqa CEO
Tonnis Houghoudt said PET waste formed the basis of his company?s raw material. ?With Ioniqa?s process PET products, made from PET waste, are identical to those made from oil, with the same quality, food safety and competitive prices.?
The US drinks giant recently entered into a multi-year supply agreement with Canadian recycling technology start-up
Loop Industries (Terrebonne, Québec;
www.loopindustries.com). The company also announced initiatives to boost the use of recycled polymers ? see Plasteurope.com of
06.12.2018.03.01.2019 Plasteurope.com [241439-0]