Updated 9/5/2007 11:31 PM
By Theresa Howard, USA TODAY

NEW YORK - Coca-Cola (KO) announced Wednesday that it will pour $44 million into its first U.S. plastic-bottle-recycling plant as part of a larger $60 million effort to give the company a "greener" environmental image.

"It's important to consumers, it's important to our system and our employees, and it's the right thing to do," says Sandy Douglas, president of Coca-Cola North America.

WHAT COKE SAYS: Text of news release.

The "bottle-to-bottle" plant - it recycles collected bottles into new bottles - will be built in Spartanburg, S.C.

Environmental groups have increasingly criticized beverage marketers for the oil use and landfill impact from billions of plastic bottles they use worldwide each year.

"In the scheme of things, (Coke's plan) is not a huge investment, but Coke and Pepsi are continuing to fight a public-relations battle on recycling," says John Faucher, beverage analyst at JPMorgan. "When you are relying on the brands' imagery to drive value, you have to be proactive. You can't sit there and take all the punches on it."

Recycling rates have only recently begun to turn up after falling for years. The rate - 23.1% in 2005, the latest available - is 16 percentage points below the 1996 rate, according to the National Association for PET Container Resources, the trade group for the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics industry.

Coke's plastic bottles currently contain about 10% recycled PET. The company has a goal of 30% by 2010 and hopes to eventually approach 100%. "We have a lot of work to do, but setting the goals creates the energy that results in achieving goals," says Douglas.

More of Coke's plan to spend green for green recycling goals:

* The 30-acre plant to open in 2008 is being built in a venture with recycling company United Resource Recovery. It will add up to 50 jobs when it is in full operation in 2009 and is expected to recycle about 100 million pounds of PET annually, equal to about 2 billion 20-ounce beverage bottles.

* An additional $10 million will be invested in a dedicated recycling joint venture formed last year by Coke and its largest bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises. Coca-Cola Recycling will create nine centralized recycling centers throughout the USA this year and add 35 in 2008. The centers will create and use a uniform recycling process for packaging that Coke produces and packaging that it receives from suppliers.

* An additional $6 million will be added to an investment Coke made in a curbside collection program in Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware run by recycling company RecycleBank. The program provides incentives, such as coupons, to encourage consumer participation. It has helped boost the recycling rate in Philadelphia to 50% from 15% since 2003. Coke will expand the program with RecycleBank this fall to Upstate New York, Vermont and Massachusetts.

Coke already is trying to raise recycling awareness with its Eco-Fashion line of apparel, wallets, shoulder bags and jewelry - including a $110 bracelet made from a Tab can and sterling silver. They are sold at www.cokestore.com.

By Mike Verespej
PLASTICS NEWS STAFF
Posted January 16, 2009

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (Jan. 16, 9:55 a.m. ET) - Coca-Cola Co. plans to boost the recycled content of its PET bottles to 10 percent by the end of 2010, thanks in part to its new joint- venture recycling plant in Spartanburg.

"This Spartanburg plant has sufficient output to meet that demand," said Scott Vitters, director of sustainable packaging for Atlanta-based Coca-Cola. All of the new plant's output will be aimed at producing new bottles, Vitters said.
"From a recycled content standpoint, we are focused on sustaining 10 percent recycled content by 2010 and 25 percent by 2015 to improve the environmental sustainability of our packaging," Vitters said. Coke achieved 10 percent recycled content in North America in 2004 and 2005, but since then the level has slipped to 3 percent or less.

"From a cost perspective, our focus is to continue to remain on a parity level or better" with virgin PET resin, Vitters said. "Long-term, we would like to invest in additional capacity at Spartanburg and in additional plants."

The plant, under construction for 18 months, will open Feb. 1. Coke invested between $45 million and $50 million in the project, including a loan and an equity stake. The plant, named New United Resource Recovery Corp. LLC, is a joint venture with Spartanburg-based recycler United Resource Recovery Corp. LLC.

Initially the plant will have capacity to recycle 56 million pounds of food-grade PET annually, with another 44 million pounds coming online by the end of this year or early 2010, when a second recycling line starts production.
The Spartanburg plant will operate around-the-clock and employ 65 starting Feb. 1, with an employment of 100 when the second line becomes operational, said URRC Vice President Gerry Fishbeck.

When completed, it is expected to be the largest PET recycling plant in the world that makes food-grade resin. Coca-Cola has similar investments in plants using URRC's Hybrid unPET technology for chemically cleaning PET flake in Mexico, France, Austria, Switzerland and the Philippines. URRC technology is also used in plants in Germany and the United Kingdom.

The plant will purchase virtually all of its raw materials on the open market, with 98 percent from curbside recycling programs.

"We will get our material where it is the most economical," said URRC President and Chief Executive Officer Carlos Gutierrez in an interview at a Jan. 14 opening ceremony in Spartanburg.

Coke does not plan to buy all of the plant's output.

"The commitment we have is that at 50-60 percent of what we make will go to Coca-Cola," Gutierrez said. NURRC is in talks with blow molders - Graham Packaging Co. LP, Southeastern Container Inc. and Amcor PET Packaging - to purchase the remaining output, he said.

The new food-grade line and the one that will start up in about a year will process clear material, each with a capacity to produce 44 million pounds of crystallized PET chips annually. The original line, built for development purposes, will process mixed colors and have a 12 million pound-per-year capacity. There is a separate sort-and-grind operation.

Jeff Seabright, Coke's vice president of environmental and water resources, said the Spartanburg plant is modeled after a Toluca, Mexico, food-grade PET recycling plant built in 2005 that was also a Coca-Cola investment.

The Spartanburg plant offers several improvements in technology over facilities that use the Hybrid UnPET process, Fishbeck said.

"The technology for bale sorting [in Spartanburg] is probably the latest out there," and is based on the concept of positive sorting. The technology looks for PET and separates it from other materials, as opposed to other technologies that "remove things they don't want. We remove what we want."

The NURRC plant also uses a laser, near-infrared sorting machine that takes 160,000 readings per second and can examine each flake to remove contaminants. The Powersort 100 was developed by Coca-Cola and Unisensor Sensorsysteme GmbH in Karlsruhe, Germany.

"It is critical to get the flake significantly more clean in order to make it suitable for food-grade applications," Fishbeck said.
Other technologies at NURRC include a dry system of recycling that eliminates the need to pre-wash bottles, developed by B+B Anlagenbau GmbH of Tonisvorst, Germany, and a dry roasting process to remove moisture that negates the need to use melt filtration to eliminate contaminants.

"We don't melt the stuff, which just typically degrades the product and makes it worse and causes it to lose some of its characteristics," Fishbeck said.

In addition, he said NURCC "doesn't have to boil water or use other detergents" to eliminate contaminants. Both of those technology differences keep operating, energy and water costs down. "At the end of the day, the crystallized chip we make is a commodity and it has to compete with virgin," he said.

Separately, Coca-Cola said it began a multi-million dollar promotional TV, print and online advertising campaign called Give It Back on Jan. 13 designed to give leave 1 billion impressions with consumer to recycle.

In addition, John Burgess, president and chief executive officer of Coca-Cola Recycling, said the company now has 30 recycling centers, up from seven at the end of 2007, at plants of Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., which sells about 80 percent of the company's bottle and can volume in North America.

He said the company expects to open another five-to-10 in 2009, which should give them 100 percent coverage of its operations.

Last year, CCE plants collected upwards of 4 million pounds of pre-consumer waste-plastic, paperboard, shrink wrap, strapping and other materials, and he expects to collect 10 million pounds of material at those plants.

Burgess said the 30 recycling centers collected and acquired 250 million pound of materials that otherwise would have been waste, equally split between PET and aluminum. The goal for 2009, he said, is to collect 400 million pounds of material, equally split again between aluminum and PET.

By LISA MCLAUGHLIN
Thursday, Aug. 02, 2007
 
For fashion-conscious women, every season has an It handbag. Shopping blogs, lunch hours and entire episodes of Sex and the City are devoted to discussing the waiting lists, long lines and bribes to key salespeople often required to get an early shot at the most sought-after Birkin, Marc Jacobs, Balenciaga or Fendi baguette. So when the newest must-have tote, designed by British bag guru Anya Hindmarch, went on sale in England in April, it wasn't terribly unusual that devotees began lining up at 2 a.m. or that all 20,000 coveted pieces were gone by 9 a.m. What was odd was that instead of queuing up in front of department stores or exclusive boutiques, fashion addicts were camped outside of humdrum supermarkets. And the bag in question was not one of Hindmarch's luxurious metallic clutches but a $15 canvas tote designed for ferrying groceries home and embroidered with the phrase I'M NOT A PLASTIC BAG.

The frenzy surrounding these limited-edition bags--several would-be owners were trampled in Taipei, Taiwan, in July, the same month in which a mob of Hindmarch fans forced police to shut down a mall in Hong Kong--is the result of a calculated effort to encourage shoppers to use fewer disposable plastic sacks, some 88 billion of which are consumed each year in the U.S. alone, with many ending up stuck in trees, clogging roadside drains and killing the birds and sea creatures that accidentally ingest them. As legislators around the globe debate whether to tax or ban outright these petroleum-based products--which experts estimate take up to 1,000 years to decompose--celebrities have been doing their part to steer consumers down a greener path. This year's trendy eco-tote has been photographed on the arms of actresses Keira Knightley, Alicia Silverstone and Reese Witherspoon.

And Hindmarch isn't the only high-priced designer--her wares typically cost thousands of dollars apiece--trying to improve the world one purse at a time. Joining her in the attempt to persuade fashionistas to carry their groceries home in a reusable bag is Stella McCartney, the English designer--and daughter of Sir Paul--whose organic cotton shopper retails for $495. Hermes' collapsible silk bag costs nearly double that, while Louis Vuitton's canvas tote retails for a staggering $1,720. Of course, people who can handle those kinds of price tags are probably outsourcing their grocery shopping. But Hindmarch thinks such fashion symbols can have a powerful ripple effect. "There was a time when what was cool was drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes," she says. "Now it's all healthy living, and I think fashion had a part in that--people seeing photos of models and celebrities--Gwyneth Paltrow walking around carrying yoga mats and bottled water."

But being the Prius of plastic bags has its pitfalls. After the stampede in Taipei, sales of the Hindmarch bag were canceled in Beijing, Jakarta, Shanghai and Singapore. And to add irony to injury, some of the I'm Not a Plastic Bag totes sold after the near riot in Hong Kong were triple-wrapped in plastic bags in an effort to keep their new owners from being mugged on their way home.

Even so, the antiplastic movement is well under way. Bangladesh, France, Uganda and a few other countries have approved nationwide bans of the flimsy flyaway sacks. San Francisco this spring became the first U.S. city to ban nonbiodegradable bags from large grocery stores and pharmacies, and similar legislation is being debated in Boston; Santa Cruz, Calif.; and Portland, Ore. In Annapolis, Md., alderman Sam Shropshire is pushing for what would be among the strictest plastic regulations in the world: banishing plastic bags not only from big retailers but from small ones too, forcing mom-and-pop restaurants, for example, to abandon leakproof doggie bags. "With our proximity to the Chesapeake Bay, there's no other option for the protection of our sea life," says Shropshire.

Environmentalists applaud such efforts but worry about an unsavory side effect: increased use of paper bags. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, demand for paper bags in the U.S. consumes 14 million trees a year. And the Environmental Protection Agency has noted that the production of paper bags involves more energy use and water pollution than that of plastic bags. Paper bags are heavier--and therefore use more fossil fuel during shipping--although they are biodegradable and recyclable. They're also more expensive for retailers, at 5.7¢ per bag (and up to 17.6¢ for ones with handles) in contrast to 2.2¢ per plastic bag. Given the downside to both paper and plastic, perhaps that $1,720 tote isn't so outrageous. "Everyone has framed the debate incorrectly," says Shropshire. "It's not paper vs. plastic. It's about getting rid of plastic in favor of recycled paper or reusable bags."

That will be an uphill battle. Plastic bags have their own lobbyists, who don't appreciate lectures from the catwalk. The Progressive Bag Alliance, which represents major plastic-bag makers, maintains that bags aren't the problem. Littering is. In an attempt to turn the tables on the eco-chic movement, the alliance has begun an unsubtle anti-Hindmarch campaign by emblazoning their signature product--using a bubble print strikingly similar to the one on her popular tote--with a defiant message: I AM A PLASTIC BAG, AND I AM 100% RECYCLABLE.

The trouble is that California is one of the few places to mandate that stores offer plastic-bag recycling, and the industry has been slow to volunteer elsewhere. Less than 1% of bags are recycled in the U.S., according to the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute. Major chains like Giant Foods are trying to improve that statistic by giving rebates to shoppers who return plastic bags for recycling, although few consumers take advantage of the policy. In March, Ikea began charging a nickel per plastic bag and selling a reusable tote for 59¢. While it's still too soon to tell how this strategy has affected U.S. consumers, a similar program launched in the U.K. last year reduced plastic-bag consumption 95%. Ireland has reported a similar decline since the country instituted a roughly 20¢-per-bag "plastax" in 2002.

Designer bags may make such taxes and prohibitions more palatable. But even Hindmarch concedes that her canvas tote has its limits. "I have five kids," she explains, which adds up to a lot of groceries--and she's still not willing to ditch the plastic when bringing home a smelly fish or other items with leak potential. But the combination of stylish looks and too-thin wallets may drive real change. Thousands of shoppers camped out in Dublin in July to get a Hindmarch bag. And many of this season's trendy $15 eco-tote bags have been selling on eBay for more than $400. Which means that this year's environmental slogan could be reduce, reuse, resell.

Tokyo, Japan, October 12, 2010 ---Teijin Fibers Limited, the core company of the Teijin Group's polyester fibers business, announced today that its ECO CIRCLE closedloop recycling system for polyester received an ICIS Innovation Award 2010 in the category of Innovation with Best Environmental Benefit.

The award recognizes ECO CIRCLE as an innovative chemical-based recycling technology and Teijin's efforts to protect the environment through polyester recycling. ECO CIRCLE helps to conserve oil resources and reduce waste by repeatedly recycling polyester material. It also leads to significantly reduced energy consumption and CO2 emissions, as compared to conventional processes in which polyester is produced from petroleum and eventually disposed through incineration.

ECO CIRCLE was developed by Teijin Fibers in 1999 and then enhanced with the world's first technology for chemical recycling in 2002. Teijin's proprietary technology enables polyester to be chemically decomposed at the molecular level and then converted into new polyester raw material. The purity and quality of the recycled material are both comparable to polyester derived directly from petroleum.

The ECO CIRCLE system includes developing and manufacturing recyclable polyester products, and then collecting the products at the end of their useful lives to recycle them once again. The system now encompasses a global network of more than 130 companies, including apparel, sportswear and uniform manufacturers, all of whom share a common commitment to environmental responsibility through recycling.

"It is an honor and a pleasure to receive this ICIS Innovation Award from the global chemical industry in recognition of our innovative chemical recycling technology and efforts to advance environmental protection," said Norio Kamei, president of Teijin Fibers. "Together with our ECO CIRCLE partners, we will continue to pursue our common goal of promoting sustainability through recycling. Going forward, Teijin Fibers also will continue to enhance ECO CIRCLE, aiming to create innovative recycling models for the entire polyester chain in the longer term."

The ICIS Innovation Awards (www.icis.com/awards), now in their seventh year, are organized by ICIS, the chemical publishing arm of Reed Business Information in the United Kingdom. The awards recognize companies that make significant contributions to the fields of technology and business. Each year, entries are judged by a panel of experts looking for innovative projects that solve problems or provide useful solutions for companies, their customers and society, as well as the environment.

About the Teijin Group
Based in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, Teijin is a global technology-driven group operating in eight main fields: aramid fibers, carbon fibers, polyester fibers, plastics, films, medical & pharmaceuticals, fiber products marketing and IT businesses. Teijin Limited, the holding company for the Teijin Group, is listed on the Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges. The group had consolidated sales of USD 8.5 billion (JPY 765.8 billion, USD 1=JPY 90) in fiscal 2009 and employs 18,778 people worldwide, with 156 companies around the world.