Coca-Cola India launches country’s first fully recycled PET packaged water bottle

03 Aug 2023 --- India gets its first 100% recycled PET (rPET) water bottle through Coca-Cola India. The food-grade rPET for the Kinley brand water bottles is produced by Srichakra Polyplast on a Starlinger PET bottle-to-bottle recycling line. 

“We are proud to supply the rPET resin for India’s first beverage bottle made from 100% rPET,” says Ravindra PV, managing director at Srichakra Polyplast. 

“With Starlinger’s PET recycling process, which has received positive opinions from the European Food Safety Authority and approvals from the Food Safety Standards Authority of India, we ensure thorough decontamination of the PET in the recycling process and produce food-safe rPET pellets for PET bottle preform production and other types of food packaging.”

The Starlinger recoSTAR PET 165 iV+ PET bottle-to-bottle recycling line at Srichakra’s production facility in Hyderabad, Telangana, was the first bottle-to-bottle recycling line Starlinger installed in India two years ago. 

The line features technology for processing post-consumer PET bottles, producing rPET pellets suitable for food contact, which can be used for packaging like bottles for water and carbonated soft drinks and food trays, Starlinger details. 

At Interpack 2023 in Düsseldorf, Germany, we spoke to Starlinger’s sales director Andreas Fuchs, who told us the trend for recyclable packaging solutions is continuing. “Packaging should be as easy as possible so that you increase the recyclability of the end product, and this we are doing in all of our divisions at Starlinger.”

Starlinger shares that Srichakra Polyplast has ordered two additional units of the PET bottle-to-bottle recycling lines, which will be delivered in the beginning of 2024.The Starlinger recoSTAR PET 165 iV+ PET bottle-to-bottle recycling line at Srichakra’s production facility produces the rPET for Coca-Cola India’s 1 L Kinley water bottles (Image credit: Starlinger).

Circularity and upliftment
Beverage giant Coca-Cola India details that its endeavor complements the Indian government’s Swachh Bharat Mission – an initiative to drive environmentally sustainable development – as the new bottles are fully recyclable and can be repurposed into new bottles. 

“Aligned with our vision of creating a ‘World Without Waste,’ we are constantly looking for ways to reduce our environmental footprint and contribute toward creating a circular economy,” says Enrique Ackermann, vice president of technical and innovation at Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia.

“We are proud to be the first beverage company in India to offer our consumers a sustainable choice of packaging by launching Kinley bottles made from 100% recycled PET.” 

The Coca-Cola Company and Minderoo Foundation recently funded the Responsible Sourcing Initiative launched by The Circulate Initiative. By convening and facilitating value chain actors to adopt harmonized responsible sourcing practices, the initiative aims to improve the livelihoods of an estimated 50,000 informal waste workers. 

Meanwhile, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) partnered to launch an Inclusive Circular Economy project in February this year to promote the social inclusion of Safai Saathis – or waste pickers – in the country. 

The project focuses on the end-to-end management of plastic waste by promoting the segregation of waste at source, collection of the segregated waste, and setting up material recovery facilities for recycling all kinds of plastic waste along the value chain. 

The UNDP-HUL partnership also contributes to the Swachh Bharat Mission Urban 2.0 by promoting waste segregation at source at the household level and creating “garbage-free cities” across India.

Edited by Radhika Sikaria