FDBusiness.com

Continuum Recycling, the pioneering recycled-PET joint venture between Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) and ECO Plastics, has celebrated sorting a quarter of a billion bottles. The landmark comes some nine months after the £15 million facility was opened and confirms the stellar performance of the partners in ramping up production.

Located on the site of ECO Plastics’ existing facility in Hemswell, itself the world’s largest plastics sorting plant, Continuum is now responsible for processing more than 50% of the UK’s bottle grade rPET plastic. The success of the facility has allowed CCE to meet its commitment to use 25% rPET in all its bottles by the end of 2012, an industry first.

The plant also played a key part in Coca-Cola’s efforts to recycle all of the plastic bottles used during the Olympics and Paralympics, with some 15 million collected and returned to shelves as part of 63 million new bottles during a process that lasted as little as six weeks.

Since opening Continuum has received a number of honours and shortlistings. These included the Best Partnership prize at the Green Business Awards, in recognition for the facility’s impact on the UK’s domestic recycling industry, as well as forming a key part of several sustainable manufacturing accolades awarded to CCE in 2012. CCE and ECO Plastics estimate that the plant will save around 33,500 tonnes of CO2 per year, the equivalent of taking over 15,715 cars off the road.

Nick Brown, Associate Director for Recycling at Coca-Cola Enterprises, says: “Continuumhas proven to be a landmark initiative for the reprocessing industry. This state-of-the-art facility is a first for the industry and is truly transforming recycling in this country. Our partnership with ECO Plastics has helped us reach an important milestone in our on-going efforts to build a low-carbon, zero waste business here in Great Britain.”