Recycled PET plastic (rPET) supplier CarbonLITE is set to construct a third facility in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania, as part of its efforts to expand its US operations.
Image: CarbonLITE’s new facility will recycle more than two billion post-consumer bottles per year. Photo: courtesy of Louis Hansel / Unsplash.
The agreement with Nestlé Waters North America has enabled CarbonLITE to build the facility in the region.
The new contract is based on Nestlé Waters’ existing relationship with CarbonLITE, and it will allow the beverage maker to further enhance the use of recycled materials in its packaging.
At present, Nestlé Waters North America purchases rPET from the existing facilities of CarbonLITE in California and Texas.
Nestlé Waters North America supply chain and procurement head Bill Trackim said: “We are pleased that CarbonLITE will be locating a facility in a region important to our manufacturing footprint.
“Being able to purchase rPET in the area helps us better support the regional economy while promoting environmental sustainability through the use of renewable and recyclable materials in our packaging.”
CarbonLITE is planning to begin the operations at the new facility by early 2020. The new facility will hold capacity to recycle more than 2 billion post-consumer bottles per year.
The new 200,000ft² processing facility is expected to curb around 60,000 tons of carbon through using post-consumer materials and produce 80 million pounds per year of food-grade rPET pellets.
CarbonLITE Industries chairman Leon Farahnik said: “We are proud to have grown with them for the past seven years and proud to expand our relationship in our state of the art facility in Pennsylvania.”
Nestlé Waters has two bottling facilities in the Lehigh Valley, and uses recycled plastic in multiple brands such as Nestlé Pure Life and Deer Park.
In February this year, Nestlé Waters introduced a 700ml Nestlé Pure Life bottle mad of 100% rPET.
In September this year, Nestlé pledged to increase the amount of recycled plastics it uses in several forms of packaging across the European Union (EU) by 2025.
The company is working to increase the proportion of recycled plastics it utilizes in its packaging, with a commitment to using 25% recycled PET (rPET) in its plastic bottles across Europe by 2025.