Pact Group, Cleanaway, Asahi Beverages and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to form a joint venture that will operate a new PET recycling facility.
Under the MOU the parties intend to come together to provide an industry model for recycling solutions in Australia.
This will include the new facility as well as the PET recycling facility currently being built by Pact Group, Cleanaway and Asahi Beverages through Circular Plastics Australia (PET) in Albury – Wodonga, which is expected to be completed later this year.
The proposed facility will provide a massive boost to Australian recycling by processing raw plastic material collected via Container Deposit Schemes and kerbside recycling.
It’s expected to process the equivalent of around 1 billion bottles each year to produce over 20,000 tonnes of new recycled PET bottles and food packaging.
Cleanaway will provide available PET through its collection and sorting network, Pact will provide technical and packaging expertise and CCEP, Asahi Beverages and Pact will buy the recycled PET from the facility to use in their respective products.
“This new joint venture will deliver a collaborative cross-industry solution to recycle the material that we use to produce our products,” says CCEP Vice President, Peter West.
“Together we can work towards creating a circular economy for PET within the beverages industry, ensuring that we are using more locally processed recycled content for the production of our bottles in Australia.”
Asahi Beverages Group CEO, Robert Iervasi says, “This will be a ground-breaking project that will massively boost PET recycling capacity. It will help transform recycling in Australia by providing a new, local source of high-quality recycled PET.”
Cleanaway Chief Operating Office Brendan Gill adds, “This project supports Cleanaway’s Footprint 2025 by ensuring we have the right infrastructure in place to create a domestic circular economy.”
Group CEO and Managing Director from Pact Group, Sanjay Dayal comments “We are proud to have CCEP, Asahi Beverages and Cleanaway as partners creating a local circular economy. This partnership shows the value of a solution that works for industry and consumers.”
The arrangements set out in this announcement remain subject to the finalisation of legally binding documents between the parties.