Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) has announced its investment in CuRe Technology’s recycling process to produce food and drink packaging. Their recycling process creates high-quality rPET with a carbon footprint that is approximately 65% lower than virgin PET. CuRe Technology is a company that focuses on developing recycling technologies for textile blend materials, plastics, and fibre-reinforced composites.
CCEP will scale up CuRe’s technology through its innovation engine, CCEP Ventures. The bottler will have access to CuRe’s rPET for use in its bottles in Europe, this will be supplied by a new plant set to begin production in 2025. This investment will be made through CCEP Ventures, which identifies innovative solutions to meet CCEP’s business challenges, including sustainability. It is part of CCEP’s efforts to eliminate the use of oil-based virgin plastic in its bottles by the end of 2030.
Joe Franses, VP sustainability at CCEP, highlighted how packaging challenges need big ideas to tackle them. Through CCEP Ventures, they can accelerate innovative solutions to help them achieve their ambitions. CuRe’s technology will provide access to recycled plastic, supporting CCEP’s transition to a circular economy for packaging.
CuRe Technology’s Chief Commercial Officer, Josse Kunst, expressed excitement to strengthen their relationship with CCEP, which will help drive progress towards more sustainable packaging. CCEP’s renewed commitment will help CuRe Technology complete the engineering for their first commercial plant faster. It will also scale cutting-edge technology, making it possible to revitalise previously difficult to recycle plastics.
By investing in recycling technologies, companies like CCEP are tackling sustainability challenges by recognising that environmental impact is critical to the survival of businesses. As consumers are paying more attention to the ecological footprint of businesses, it has become imperative that innovation is used to identify ways in which companies can reduce their waste and create a circular economy.
