From: FoodBev

The Coca-Cola Company has extended a loan to Ioniqa Technologies to facilitate the development of the Netherlands-based firm’s technology to produce recycled PET content from hard-to-recycle PET waste.

Coke said the agreement is designed to accelerate the development and deployment of high-grade recycled content PET for use in its bottles.

The investment supports Coca-Cola’s goal to create packaging made of at least 50% recycled material by 2030.

Ioniqa’s technology supports the circular economy for plastics by allowing packages such as coloured PET bottles that may have been excluded from certain recycling streams to be recycled into food-grade quality packaging.

The agreement is intended to accelerate the scale-up of Ioniqa’s recycling technology for PET.

“Our investment in new and pioneering recycling technologies is an opportunity for significant movement toward closing the loop and creating a circular economy for PET,” said Robert Long, chief innovation officer for The Coca-Cola Company. “We plan to continue investment in developing the right partnerships and initiatives – like with Ioniqa – to support our vision of a World Without Waste.”

“Partnering with The Coca-Cola Company is a further validation of our journey to launch this unique process for transforming hard-to-recycle PET waste into high-quality, food-grade material,” said Tonnis Hooghoudt, CEO of Ioniqa.

“The Ioniqa process allows for significant recovery and reuse of plastic materials that might otherwise not be recycled, while delivering quality, food-grade PET. The launch of our plant next year will be a step change in the transformation of hard-to-recycle PET plastic into a more widely usable recycled material, supporting the vision of Coca-Cola.”

Earlier this year, Unilever revealed a collaboration with Ioniqa and Indorama Ventures and has since been trialing Ioniqa’s technology on an industrial scale.