New Life Plastics Limited (“NLP”) has opened the largest food-grade-ready plastic recycling facility in Hong Kong. The new facility is a joint venture among Swire Coca-Cola Limited, ALBA Group (Asia) Limited (“ALBA”), and Baguio Waste Management and Recycling Limited (“Baguio”), where used plastics will be remanufactured as valuable raw materials to support the local circular economy for beverage packaging.
Located at the EcoPark in Tuen Mun, the 6,500-square-metre recycling facility has been currently processing 400 tonnes of recycled beverage bottles per month, with capacity up to 900 tonnes. Using state-of-the-art technology, NLP turns post-consumer PET bottles into food-grade ready rPET flakes, which are then supplied to manufacturers for producing a wide range of recycled PET products. The new facility reduces the burden on landfills, saves consumers waste charges, and is another step towards Hong Kong’s goal of carbon neutrality.
As early as 2017, Swire Coca-Cola, alongside ALBA, Baguio, and other beverage manufacturers, retailers, NGOs, and recyclers, came together as founding members of the Single-Use Beverage Packaging Working Group. The group focused on reducing waste and creating a circular economy for beverage consumption via its “Drink Without Waste” initiative.
Patrick Healy, Chairman of Swire Coca-Cola, said at the opening ceremony held last December that the establishment of NLP represents a huge step towards our goal of “closing the loop”: that is, collecting and processing Hong Kong’s discarded PET bottles to produce the raw materials which will come back into the supply chain as recycled PET, not just for Swire Coca-Cola, but for all Hong Kong’s beverage producers.
As one of the advocates of the 'Drink Without Waste' initiative, Swire Coca-Cola has made a series of commitments, including: dramatically reducing the amount of plastic in PET bottles; increasing the recycled content in primary packaging and continuing to promote the development of the plastic recycling industry.
