Starlinger boosts Novatex’s food-grade rPET capacity in Pakistan
Key takeaways
- Starlinger’s bottle-to-bottle recycling system has increased Novatex’s annual PET production capacity to more than 24,000 tons.
- The system can produce up to 3,000 kg of food-contact rPET per hour from post-consumer bottles.
- Novatex aims to support major beverage brands’ circularity targets as Pakistan strengthens efforts to tackle plastic waste.
(Image credit: Starlinger).Starlinger has equipped Novatex with its bottle-to-bottle recycling system, increasing the Pakistan-based PET manufacturer’s annual production output to more than 24,000 tons.
Starlinger’s system converts post-consumer recycled PET (rPET) bottles, mostly from municipal kerbside collection in Pakistan, to rPET. Due to the collaboration, Novatex is reportedly able to produce up to 3,000 kg of food-contact rPET per hour.
“By producing bottle-grade rPET, we want to support our partners PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, and others to meet their circularity targets,” says Rizwan Diwan, CEO at Novatex.
“The produced rPET has all the necessary food-contact certifications and is being used by all major brands. In addition, the government of Pakistan is pushing hard to eliminate single-use plastics and plastic waste.”
A recent report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN urged a more robust risk assessment into the use of recycled plastic in food contact packaging to mitigate the risk of chemical contamination.
The packaging industry is increasingly adopting recycled content solutions due to regulatory requirements, environmental concerns over the use of virgin plastic, and a shortage in supply.
Plastic pollution concerns
Novatex explains how the recycling system aims to combat high amounts of plastic waste in Pakistan and foster a circular economy.
“Pakistan’s efforts to tackle plastic waste, however, are still evolving. A fully consolidated framework with binding national laws has not yet been established. In the last year, the country has moved from plastic bans and pilot initiatives in individual provinces toward a more coordinated national approach, but implementation remains uneven,” says Novatex.
In April 2025, the Government of Pakistan, the UN’s Development Program, and the World Economic Forum launched the National Plastic Action Partnership Roadmap to tackle plastic waste in the country.
Since then, the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency and the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration have carried out multiple “crackdowns” on the use of single-use plastic.
Previously, Starlinger provided Bua Group with packaging machinery for the Nigeria-based conglomerate’s latest production facility, expected to produce 600 million PP block-bottom bags annually.
