Hiccup or Red Flag?

Coca-Cola’s commitment to use post-consumer PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles as feedstock in the production of new beverage containers has been hailed as an important step forward in the evolution of PET bottle recycling in North America, including in this publication.

In April of this year, however, Coca-Cola’s processing partner United Resource Recovery Corp. (URRC) laid off several dozen workers at the Spartanburg, S.C., facility where the bottle-to-bottle process is centered. URRC’s Gerry Fishbeck told a Spartanburg area newspaper that the company is “focused on bringing in new equipment that will improve the performance of our operation.”

Fishbeck also acknowledged that the company had “curtailed” the bottle-to-bottle efforts in Spartanburg while continuing to turn baled post-consumer PET bottles into PET flakes and chips for other applications. As the Spartanburg facility was being developed, Coca-Cola often pointed out that it was already successfully engaged in bottle-to-bottle recycling efforts in Europe, the Philippines and in Mexico. Whether the existence of these plants means a second effort will be undertaken to make bottle-to-bottle recycling work in Spartanburg is unclear as of late April. To what extent the setback in Spartanburg has a deep impact on PET recycling efforts in North America is another source of conversation among recyclers. It’s possible that the future of the Spartanburg facility may play a larger role on this supply side.

On the demand side, the Spartanburg plant has been one of several new installations or plant expansions in North America set up to consume PET bottles in the past three years. Many plastics recyclers have been concerned about whether this capacity can be fed rather than fearing a lack of end markets for PET. As the Spartanburg plant and others came online in North America, the conversation turned toward ramping up collection and improving the recycling rate for post-consumer PET bottles.

The history of plastics recycling in North America contains several instances of Fortune 500-sized companies making initial investments in plastics recycling but withdrawing from the market when their efforts did not meet expectations.

Coca-Cola has been putting dollars and public relations effort into letting America know about its recent recycling initiative. One of the goals of that PR campaign, shared by many recycling advocates, is a considerable and sustained improvement in PET bottle recycling rates.

To what extent Coca-Cola ultimately is able to use recycled-PET content in its bottles in North America seems likely to play a role in whether the company stays interested in the recycling rates of PET bottles.