Coca-Cola Announces Loan Agreement with Ioniqa Technologies to Transform Hard-to-Recycle Plastic Waste

This is really good news. The number one soda brand I pick up off the beach is Coca Cola. They also own Sprite, Fanta, Smartwater, Dasani, Powerade, Simply Orange, and Vitaminwater, which means that they are major ocean plastic polluters. All which are picked up almost daily in my little run of the beach.

When you read that Coca Cola produces 110 Billion Plastic Bottles per year.. you KNOW that a major percentage of them are going into our waters.. especially the ocean. Coca-Cola did confirm that single-use plastic bottles made up 59% of its global packaging in 2016 compared to 58% in 2015. In other words.. plastic consumption is going up…

After much pressure, Coca Cola UK pledged increase recycled plastic in its bottles to 50% by 2020…  But this is ONLY in the UK? NOT in Mexico, where Coca bottles make up for about 90% of the beach trash. Coca Cola’s CEO also stated that Coke has a responsibility to help solve the world’s packaging problem and they hope to collect and recycle bottles and cans for every one they sell by 2030.

The good news Coca Cola has extended a loan to a company to help them recycle PET waste. This is an intensive process that can do much to help reuse PET Waste.

ATLANTA, Dec. 13, 2018 – The Coca-Cola Company announced a new agreement extending a loan to Ioniqa Technologies (The Netherlands) to facilitate the development of Ioniqa’s proprietary technology to produce high-grade, recycled PET content from hard-to-recycle PET waste. The agreement is designed to accelerate the development and deployment of high-grade recycled content PET for use in bottles used by The Coca-Cola Company.

This investment supports the company’s global vision to work toward a World Without Waste, which includes a goal to create packaging made of at least 50% recycled material by 2030. The new technology supports the circular economy for plastics by allowing packages such as colored PET bottles that may have been excluded from certain recycling streams to be recycled into food-grade quality packaging.

The agreement is intended to accelerate scale-up of Ioniqa’s recycling technology for PET. Ioniqa has developed a proprietary recycling technology that is able to convert hard-to-recycle PET-containing waste like colored bottles into purified polymer building blocks that can be later re-formed into high quality PET. The technology has been validated at the demonstration scale with value chain partners, and a 10 kMT industrial plant is under construction in The Netherlands for commissioning in 2019.

“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,” said Robert Long, Chief Innovation Officer for The Coca-Cola Company. “We plan to continue investment in developing the right partnerships and initiatives – like with Ioniqa – to support our vision of a World Without Waste.”

“Partnering with The Coca-Cola Company is a further validation of our journey to launch this unique process for transforming hard-to-recycle PET waste into high-quality, food-grade material,” said Tonnis Hooghoudt, CEO of Ioniqa. “The Ioniqa process allows for  significant recovery and reuse of plastic materials that might otherwise not be recycled, while delivering quality food grade PET. The launch of our plant next year will be a step change in the transformation of hard-to-recycle PET plastic into a more widely usable recycled material, supporting the vision of Coca-Cola.”

 As an FYI

Danone  Evian mineral water brand will make all its plastic bottles from 100 percent recycled plastic by 2025.

• McDonald’s set their own goal on to use all recycled or other environmentally friendly materials for its soda cups, Happy Meal boxes and other packaging by 2025.
• PepsiCo set a goal to make by 2015 that 100% of its packaging recoverable or recyclable

About The Coca-Cola Company

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) is a total beverage company, offering over 500 brands in more than 200 countries and territories. In addition to the company’s Coca-Cola brands, our portfolio includes some of the world’s most valuable beverage brands, such as AdeS soy-based beverages, Ayataka green tea, Dasani waters, Del Valle juices and nectars, Fanta, Georgia coffee, Gold Peak teas and coffees, Honest Tea, innocent smoothies and juices, Minute Maid juices, Powerade sports drinks, Simply juices, smartwater, Sprite, vitaminwater and ZICO coconut water. We’re constantly transforming our portfolio, from reducing sugar in our drinks to bringing innovative new products to market. We’re also working to reduce our environmental impact by replenishing water and promoting recycling. With our bottling partners, we employ more than 700,000 people, helping bring economic opportunity to local communities worldwide. Learn more at Coca-Cola Journey at www.coca-colacompany.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

The fairlife® brand is owned by fairlife LLC, our joint venture with Select Milk Producers Inc. Products from fairlife are distributed by our company and certain of our bottling partners.