The new facility will hold the capacity to recycle 1.92 billion PET plastic bottles per annum
Indorama is set to construct new PET recycling facility in Indonesia. (Credit: VIVIANE MONCONDUIT from Pixabay)
Thailand-based Indorama Ventures Public (IVL) is set to construct a new PET recycling facility in West Java, Indonesia.
Designed to support the government’s plan to reduce ocean debris, the new facility in Karawang will hold the potential to recycle up to two billion plastic bottles per annum.
Expected to be operational in 2023, Indorama’s new plant will recycle 1.92 billion PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles every year.
The new PET plastic bottles recycling facility will create 217 new jobs in the region.
The new facility is part of the company’s strategy to eliminate post-consumer PET bottles from waste and boost the circular economy.
It will support the Government of Indonesia’s National Plan of Action on Marine Plastic Debris.
Indorama’s recycling plant will convert the washed and shredded post-consumer bottles to PET flake feedstock to manufacture recycled resin, which can be used in food contact applications.
The Republic of Indonesia Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said: “I appreciate the initiative of Indorama Ventures to help the government to end and mitigate the plastic waste crisis through their investment in this green-field recycling facility.”
Indorama currently manages six sites across Purwakarta, Cilegon, Tangerang and Karawang in Indonesia.
In 2019, the company announced plans to invest $1.5bn to recycle a minimum of 750,000 metric tonnes of PET across the globe by 2025.
Indorama Ventures chief sustainability officer Yashovardhan Lohia said: “The unique PET plastic used in soft drinks and water bottles is 100% recyclable and must never end up in our oceans.
“Today we are announcing a new PET recycling facility in Karawang. It will recycle 1.92 billion post-consumer PET bottles per year from across Indonesia by the end of 2023.”
In November last year, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $100m financing package for Indorama to reduce the environmental impact of plastic and boost a circular economy.