UK reprocessing must become more competitive, says Coca-Cola

The company’s associate director Nick Brown said that increasing demand from brand leaders and manufacturers for high-grade quality secondary materials could create value for the waste industry as a whole, but that the market conditions were not yet in place yet to capitalise upon this.

Talking about the reprocessing sector in particular, Brown said it was “still a business dominated by spot trading of materials”. He added: “It’s not developing long-term value relationships that will make it worth investing in.”

According to Brown, three key criteria are needed to build investor confidence in the industry – feedstock security, capability in marketing, and the right exit markets to drive material value.

The bottling company has invested several million in its own food-grade PET bottle recycling plant through Continuum Recycling – a joint venture with reprocessor Eco Plastics – to access the right standard of materials for remanufacture and close the loop in its own operations.

Brown added that although his firm wasn’t a traditional investor in the waste market, it was a user of the materials created from it and that waste firms needed to realise the importance of that.

“We take our responsibilities very seriously when it comes to sustainable packaging. Half of the embedded carbon from our processes is in packaging so it is essential that we look at low carbon solutions.”

Maxine Perella