PetStar PET recycling plant expands

Arca Continental, Coca-Cola Mexico and other bottlers in the Coca-Cola System in Mexico that also hold shares in food-grade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycler PetStar, recently inaugurated PetStar’s facility expansion in Toluca.

The facility is considered the largest of its kind in Mexico and the world, and the bottlers have invested more than $143 million to expand the plant.

According to Coca-Cola Mexico, the facility’s annual recycling capacity will increase from 50,000 tons to 86,000 tons of recycled food-grade resin as a result of processing more than 123,000 tons of PET per year—equivalent to 5.5 billion bottles that will be reincorporated into the value chain of Coca-Cola System bottlers that are PetStar shareholders, including Arca Continental, Bepensa, Corporación del Fuerte, Grupo Rica, Grupo Embotellador Nayar and Embotelladora de Colima.

“This scale is possible thanks to the joint investment and permanent commitment of these companies to strengthen the collection infrastructure throughout the country and, with it, bottle by bottle, make a difference,” Coca-Cola Mexico says.

During an inauguration ceremony held Nov. 26, Mexico’s Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources, Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, said the PetStar plant is a tangible and clear example of how new plastic can be avoided, allowing recycled bottles to have “infinite lives and be transformed many times over.”

Coca-Cola Mexico says the investment in PetStar will continue generating a direct economic and social impact, promoting 2,200 formal jobs and 49,000 indirect jobs for “scavengers and urban recyclers,” who the company says are a key piece in the inclusive circular economy model it promotes.

“PetStar is an example in many ways, because it has managed to integrate a value chain where everyone from scavengers to those who do the collection and that complete the value chain is what we are interested in promoting,” Bárcena Ibarra says. “A circular economy is possible.”

PetStar CEO Jaime Cámara highlighted the historical significance of the expansion.

“Thirty years ago we signed a pact with our planet: to try everything to take care of it, and together with Arca Continental and our shareholders of the Coca-Cola System, we have achieved beyond what we imagined, such as being part of a system with clear goals, positioning Mexico as a leader in PET collection and recycling in the American continent and, today, make history by expanding our world’s largest food-grade PET recycling plant,” he says. “We don’t want any packaging to be left behind, which is why today we demonstrate and reaffirm the great commitment of our shareholders to keep bottle-to-bottle possible—making a difference at every stop together.”

The event also was attended by government officials and representatives of business chambers, academia, civil organizations and more than 400 guests.

“The expansion of PetStar is an important example of the commitment and leadership of the Coca-Cola system in Mexico with the circular economy of our packaging, with innovation, sustainable investment and, above all, the creation of shared value for thousands of families directly and indirectly involved in the collection and recycling of PET," says Jorge H. Santos, chairman of the board of directors of Arca Continental.