“Through this investment, more jobs will be created for Filipinos, and this will also help uplift the livelihood of those within the waste value chain.”
In January 2018, Coca-Cola Philippines announced its World Without Waste global vision. The ambitious goal is to collect and recycle every single bottle and can by 2030.
“Any time our packaging ends up anywhere it doesn’t belong is simply unacceptable to us,” says Jonah De Lumen-Pernia, public affairs and sustainability director of Coca-Cola Philippines. “Coca-Cola has globally committed to building a World Without Waste, and we are striving to make that a reality in the Philippines through various initiatives and partnerships.”
Thus, Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines Inc. (CCBPI) — the bottling arm of Coca-Cola in the country — has partnered with Thailand-based Indorama Ventures, a global leader in recycling technologies, to create the biggest state-of-the-art, bottle-to-bottle PET recycling facility in the country, to be known as PETValue.
“PETValue Philippines represents Coca-Cola’s first investment in a recycling facility in Southeast Asia. It demonstrates the company’s genuine commitment to our World Without Waste vision. It is not just talk, we really want to establish a circular economy for our recyclable PET plastic packaging,” says Gareth McGeown, CEO and president of CCBPI.
The recycling facility is located in General Trias, Cavite, and will be operational by the first quarter of 2021. It claims to be the safest and most advanced facility to process used PET plastic bottles, allowing an endless loop of recycling. It is projected to process 30,000 metric tons of PET bottles per year, which is equivalent to approximately three billion bottles.
McGeown adds, “Through this investment, more jobs will be created for Filipinos, and this will also help uplift the livelihood of those within the waste value chain.”
Coca-Cola has been steadily doing collective action as it leverages on the expansive scale of its advocacy.
It has implemented light-weighting of its PET plastic packaging to reduce its plastic consumption while ensuring the same quality of its beverages. Today, packaging for 500ml and 330ml Wilkins and Viva are now approximately 20-percent lighter.
In June 2019, it also launched Viva! eco-bottle, the country’s first beverage bottle made from 100-percent recycled plastic.
The company has also been working with like-minded organizations, such as the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation (AIDFI) for the Balik Plastic “Blastik” Project. Rolled out in a farming community in Negros Occidental, the project seeks to educate communities on the importance of recycling and up-cycling, as well as the economic viability of PET bottles and setting up of a plastic waste management system.
Recently, it also entered into a partnership with Plastic Bank, a social enterprise aimed at helping the world stop ocean plastic while improving the lives of collector communities. Plastic Bank collectors will gather 100,000 kilograms of ocean-bound plastic over the next year, and Coca-Cola aims for this plastic to be delivered to PETValue Philippines.