Recycled PET use held back by collection rates

Beverage multinational subsidiary Coca-Cola Bottling South Africa (CCBSA) uses 10% recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) and has completed technical and production validation of 25% rPET content, but are constrained by the availability of rPET, Coca-Cola Bottling Gauteng and Inland regional supply chain manager Henry Peek said on Friday. CCBSA energy and sustainability manager JP Blumenthal detailed the company's engineering work to make their PET beverage bottles lighter, called lightweighting, which has seen the weight decrease from 54 g for a 2 litre bottle about 11 years ago to 45.7 g currently, with a wall thickness of about 0.3 mm. The company has validated further lightweighting and can reduce the weight of a 2 litre bottle to 41.8 g, which it would phase in over the next six months.