CCEP invests in recycling technology to improve access to recycled material for bottles
CCEP is accelerating its ambition to eliminate virgin oil-based plastic from its bottles through an investment in scaling technology that creates high quality rPET for food and drink packaging.
CCEP’s innovation investment engine, CCEP Ventures, is investing in recycling start-up CuRe Technology, which uses ‘polyester rejuvenation’ to target plastics that cannot be recycled by mechanical recycling methods and prevents them from being incinerated, downcycled or sent to landfill.
CuRe Technology’s recycling process creates high-quality rPET with a carbon footprint that is approximately 65% lower than virgin PET, which can be used for food and drink packaging and re-processed as many times as necessary. This will offer a new lease of life for hard-to-recycle plastics, accelerating the transition to a circular economy for PET and creating a new stream of rPET.
CCEP will have access to CuRe Technology’s rPET for use in its bottles in Europe, which will be supplied by a new plant set to start production in 2025.
Joe Franses, VP sustainability at CCEP said the development is part of its commitment to reducing the environmental impact of its packaging, and eliminating the use of oil-based virgin plastic in bottles by the end of the decade.
“Packaging challenges need big ideas to tackle them, and through CCEP Ventures we can accelerate innovative solutions to help us meet our ambitions. CuRe’s technology will give us access to recycled plastic that will accelerate our transition to a circular economy for our packaging,” Franses added.
This is CCEP’s second investment in CuRe Technology, following initial funding in 2020 to support CuRe Technology’s R&D roadmap and pilot plant. This phase will build on success to-date and take the technology to commercial readiness.
Josse Kunst, chief commercial officer at CuRe Technology said: “We are excited to further strengthen our relationship with CCEP, helping drive progress on their goal to create more sustainable packaging.
“CCEP’s renewed commitment will help us complete the engineering for our first commercial plant faster, scaling cutting-edge technology and making it possible to revitalise previously difficult to recycle plastics.”
