Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Australia (CCEP) has launched a regional circularity initiative with Circular Plastics Australia (CPA) to establish a bottle-to-bottle supply chain for PET collected from the Pacific.
The program is being implemented in Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu, where recycling infrastructure is limited.
In its first year, the initiative is expected to recover around 2000 tonnes of PET. Capacity could increase to 6000 tonnes per year in a later phase. The initiative aims to reduce plastic entering the environment and support local income streams.
The first shipment, comprising 9.4 tonnes of PET collected by communities in Vanuatu, has arrived in Melbourne for recycling into new bottles. Additional shipments from Fiji and Papua New Guinea are scheduled to arrive in the coming weeks as the program expands.
Orlando Rodriguez, managing director for Australia at CCEP, said the initiative addresses a key constraint in the region, which is the lack of local recycling capacity.
Integrating community-collected PET into Australia’s existing recycling system enables Pacific Island nations to participate in a cross-border circular economy model. “We’re committed to scaling this model so more Pacific communities can benefit,” he said.
At an operational level, CCEP is working with local partners to develop collection networks and investing in initial processing steps, including flaking and densification, to support transport. The material is then shipped to Australia for recycling into food-grade RPET, with logistics support from Swire Shipping.
The RPET is used by CCEP and Asahi Beverages for bottles and supplied to Pact Group for food packaging.
Justin Knott, GM sales and marketing at CPA, said material from the Pacific supports increased output of food-grade resin. It is processed through existing container deposit and collection systems in Australia.
“Incorporating additional material from Pacific Island nations is a natural extension of that capability,” he said.
The initiative is supported by recycling infrastructure operated by CCEP and CPA in Australia, including facilities in NSW and Victoria. Each facility has the capacity to process the equivalent of 1 billion PET bottles per year.
The program expands the use of existing recycling infrastructure to include material from Pacific Island nations and supports efforts to reduce plastic entering the environment.
- Further reading: Coke, Asahi lead joint venture to recycle 1 billion PET bottles annually.
