• Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Australia has launched a regional circularity program with Circular Plastics Australia, creating a viable recycling pathway for PET collected across Pacific Island nations.
• The first 9.4 tonne shipment of community collected PET from Vanuatu has arrived in Melbourne for recycling into new bottles, with shipments from Fiji and PNG arriving soon.
• Rolling out across Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu, the program is expected to recover up to 2,000 tonnes of PET in its first year, supporting local income streams and reducing plastic entering the environment.

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Australia (CCEP) has announced a milestone initiative with Circular Plastics Australia PET (CPA) – a joint venture between Pact Group, Cleanaway Waste Management, Asahi Beverages and CCEP – to help reduce plastic waste in the Pacific and scale producer responsibility across borders.

As part of this regional program, the first shipment of community-collected PET from Vanuatu – totalling 9.4 tonnes – has arrived in Melbourne for processing at CPA’s PET plastic recycling facility in Altona North. This first-of-its-kind initiative for CCEP marks an important early step in establishing a regular pathway for Pacific-collected plastic to be recycled into new beverage bottles in Australia.

Pacific Island nations face disproportionately high impacts from plastic pollution due to limited recycling infrastructure, meaning most PET currently cannot be processed in-market.

Orlando Rodriguez, Managing Director – Australia at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, said:

“Coca-Cola Europacific Partners is proud to be spearheading this initiative, because creating true circularity in the Pacific requires solutions that operate across borders. By moving community collected PET into Australia’s established recycling system, we’re demonstrating that small island nations can fully participate in a modern circular economy, even when local recycling infrastructure is limited. It’s a powerful example of what industry collaboration can achieve, and we’re committed to scaling this model so more Pacific communities can benefit.”

Working with local partners, CCEP has supported the development of community collection programs that provide economic incentives, create job pathways and help reduce litter. Through this initiative, PET collected via these systems can be flaked, densified and transported to Australia for recycling into high-quality, food-grade rPET.

Two further shipments, from Fiji and Papua New Guinea, are scheduled to arrive in the coming weeks, as the initiative expands across PNG, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu. The program is anticipated to import up to 2,000 tonnes over the next 12 months, with potential to scale up to 6,000 tonnes per annum in the coming year.

Key investments include: 

• Funding and installing early-stage processing equipment in Pacific communities to prepare PET for transport.

• Provision of pro bono ocean freight services by Swire Shipping to ensure viable logistics for the region.

Justin Knott, General Manager Sales and Marketing, Circular Plastics Australia (PET) said: “CPA’s plastic recycling facilities were established to process PET beverage bottles collected through Australia’s container deposit schemes and kerbside recycling bins. Incorporating additional material from Pacific Island nations is a natural extension of that capability and means we can recycle more PET into high-quality food grade resin and help underpin a circular economy that benefits the whole region.”

The recycled PET resin produced at the CPA facilities is used by CCEP and Asahi Beverages to manufacture new beverage bottles, and by Pact Group to make food packaging.

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners broader investment in circularity is already delivering results through Container Deposit Schemes across all Australian States and territories, and CPA’s facilities in NSW and Victoria, with each having the capacity to recycle the equivalent of one billion PET bottles annually per site, excluding caps and labels. This initiative extends those benefits to the Pacific, furthering CCEP’s long term commitment to designing out waste and maximising the lifetime value of materials.

ABOUT COCA-COLA EUROPACIFIC PARTNERS

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) is one of the world’s leading consumer goods companies. We make, move and sell some of the world’s most loved brands – serving 600 million consumers and helping 4 million customers across 31 countries grow. As one of the largest bottlers and distributors of non-alcoholic and alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages in Australia we have a portfolio that offers a beverage for every occasion. For more information about CCEP, please visit https://www.cocacolaep.com/au/

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