1 week Ago By postcourieronline
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) Papua New Guinea, has officially opened its state-of-the-art PET (plastic bottle) line in Lae, Morobe province. This multimillion-kina investment started in 2022 and was completed earlier this year, with the first bottle run on 12 July 2024. CCEP PNG’s Sales and Commercial Director Tim Solly, said the new production line reflects the long-term investment the company has made and continues to make in Papua New Guinea.
“Since starting our operations in Lae over 30 years ago, this new PET line compliments the existing three (3) production lines we have here and in Port Moresby for both cans and PET plastic bottles.” Solly said that in the last few years, there has been a consumer shift, with increasing preference towards beverages in bottles which has led the company to install this new line. With a capacity to produce 13 million-unit cases to the customers, the line produces 36,000 bottles per hour.
It also has in-built sensory features that reject bottle defects before being filled with sizes ranging from 300ml to 500ml packs. The beverage range includes consumer favourites such as Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, and Solo. In delivering his keynote speech, Executive Director of the Conservation Environment Protection Authority Brendan Trawen commended CCEP on the expansion.
“Firstly, I would like to commend CCEP and The Coca-Cola Company for taking the initiative to achieve this multi million expansion project since 2021 and 2022. Coca Cola is Papua New Guinea’s largest bottler and it is obviously acknowledged that Coca Cola holds a strategic economic position with increased beverage production.” Solly said as a PNG manufacturer, CCEP prides itself on being a good corporate citizen and are also committed to recycling the PET plastic that they put into the market.
Over the past two years Coca-Cola have been working with Branis Recycling on the collection and recycling of PET plastic bottles in Port Moresby. The scheme allows consumers to bring their empty PET plastic drink bottles, of any brand, not just Coca-Cola products to a Branis collection center. The consumer is paid K1.
00 in cash every kilo of PET that they bring in. The collected material is then processed and sent offshore for recycling, as PNG does not have a PET recycling facility in the country. The scheme is a win-win situation where Coca-Cola provides an income incentive for consumers to bring in their PET bottles and are paid K1.
00 per 1kilogram of PET plastic collected. Currently the scheme is operational in Port Moresby with over 420 tonnes collected since the programme began. This means we are currently around 30% of all the PET bottles we sell in the Southern region.
“Today, I am very proud to announce that this PET Collection programme will now be expanded into Lae in March 2025,” Solly said. “It’s critical now that we raise awareness of recycling and encourage people in Lae to recycle their PET bottles as soon as our scheme is operational in 2025,” Solly said. The launch was attended by distinguished guests including Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Vice President and Regional Managing Director of Australia, the Pacific and Indonesia, Peter West, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Managing Director Pacific (Pacific Leadership), Steve Inch, Conservation & Environment Protection Authority Executive Director Brendan Trawen as well as representatives from Lae business community.
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