Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines, Inc. (CCBPI), the bottling arm of Coca-Cola in the country, announced today plans to help boost recycling in the country through an investment in a PHP 1B pioneering food-grade recycling facility. This represents Coca-Cola’s first major investment in a recycling facility in South East Asia and is part of the Company’s commitment to a World Without Waste. To ensure that the positive impact of the facility will be total and far-reaching, CCBPI has engaged in discussions with potential partners: a reputable local company, as well as an internationally-recognized green technology partner in recycling. Anchored on the circular economy concept, the recycling facility will collect, sort, clean and wash post-consumer PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles and turn them into new bottles using advanced technology.
“Coca-Cola has called the Philippines its home for 107 years and counting, and we want to do our part in ensuring sustainability within its shores,” says Gareth McGeown, President and CEO of Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines, Inc. “Our Coca-Cola bottles and cans are 100% recyclable and have value as a recycled material. Our aspiration with this facility is to close the loop on our packaging by helping turn old bottles into new ones. This facility is testament to our resolve in making our World Without Waste vision a reality across the country, with real positive impact not just across our value chain, but also in the communities where we belong.”
Once established, it is expected that the facility will contribute to the improvement of PET collection and recycling rates in the Philippines—and, with this, the generation of more Filipino jobs. The project will also help uplift the livelihood of workers across the waste materials value chain, including that of waste-pickers and waste-collectors. Through job creation and the institutionalization of environmentally conscious practices, this recycling facility will help build stronger communities.
The project is an integral part of “World Without Waste” – Coca-Cola’s global commitment to collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle and can it sells by 2030. The company also intends to use an average of 50% recycled content in its packaging including its PET bottles. Coca-Cola Philippines’ roadmap to making this vision come to life will be launched on June 11, 2019 in Paranaque City.
World Without Waste is one of Coca-Cola’s most ambitious sustainability goals to date. Over the years, the company has made strong progress in the Philippines by integrating sustainability across the business and the value chain—from water resources (the company has already achieved over 100% water replenishment through an array of community water projects); to energy (50% of Coca-Cola’s operational energy requirements in the country utilize renewable energy); to sustainable packaging (50% of volume in returnable glass bottles). Other projects in the pipeline involve using solar panels in the company’s manufacturing facilities as part of its Clean Energy 2.0 initiative.
McGeown concludes, “World Without Waste is an important and very ambitious goal and we are confident that by working together with our partners, we can deliver on our commitments here in the Philippines. The bottle-to-bottle closed loop investment that we are announcing today is a model for how we want to grow sustainably and responsibly. We recognize that there is a packaging waste problem in the world today and this investment is one of the ways we are stepping up to be part of the solution for the long-haul.”