May. 13, 2024
At the December 2022 opening ceremony of the state-of-the-art, 6,500-square-metre plant that cost US$11.6 million to build, Patrick Healy, chairman of Swire Coca-Cola, called the establishment of New Life Plastics (NLP) a "huge step" toward the Hong Kong-based drink maker's ambition of "closing the loop." NLP operates the city's largest food-grade plastics recycling facility at EcoPark in the New Territories, aiming to process a quarter of the 4.7 million plastic drink containers landfilled daily.
Despite these efforts, the recycling plant is running at merely 30 per cent capacity two years post-establishment, according to Suzanne Cheung Kit-yi, head of public affairs, communications, and sustainability at Swire Coca-Cola HK. Cheung explained that the underutilization is due to a lack of policy support, inadequate collection infrastructure, and consumers' distrust that bottles placed in recycling bins will be recycled instead of ending up in landfills. She stressed that improving convenience, incentivizing recycling-friendly packaging, and enhancing public trust through education and recycling check-and-trace mechanisms are critical for boosting recycling efforts.
Goto EcoPlas to know more.
To counter the growing problem of plastic waste, Swire Coca-Cola and Watsons Water have taken proactive measures by incorporating the more expensive recycled PET material in their packaging, complemented by the use of reverse vending machines that offer rewards for recycled bottles. However, the reliance on overseas sources for recycled PET highlights the urgent need for local solutions to genuinely "close the loop" by minimizing the carbon footprint associated with transportation.
Cheung articulated EcoPlas's goal to build a functional local circular economy in Hong Kong, collaborating with NLP to remanufacture bottles using locally collected PET. This model, which emphasizes reusing, repurposing, and recycling existing materials, aims to prolong their lifespan, cut waste, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
To know more about EcoPlas you can visit EcoPlas,or about recycling process visit recycled polypropylene plastic material factory HongKong.
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