Coca-Cola Netherlands creates recycled polyolefin plastic baskets

        Coca-Cola Eurasia Partners (CCEP) Netherlands claims that it is working on using 97% recycled plastic to make its iconic red plastic baskets. These plastic baskets mainly serve the Dutch catering industry and are used to transport refillable glass bottles of Coca-Cola.

        It is reported that plastic baskets are usually made of HDPE or PP materials. After consumption, these plastics will be recycled to produce new plastic baskets.

        The red plastic baskets are not all from Coca-Cola's closed-loop plastic basket system. 85% of the material comes from red plastic baskets recycled after consumption, and the remaining 15% comes from the nets used to grow tulips.

        Coca-Cola has partnered with recycling distributor Healix to recycle the discarded nets. Healix is first responsible for crushing and cleaning, then melting the recycled net wire and other fibers obtained from agriculture and fisheries, and then handing it over to the Maastricht factory for granulation. The Maastricht plant is said to be put into production in 2022 and has an annual production capacity of 6,000 tons of PP and HDPE. The r-PP pellets mainly come from strapping, discarded marine ropes and bags, while the r-HDPE pellets come from fishing nets. After the pelletization is completed, the Dutch packaging manufacturer Schoeller Allibert will take on the task of producing recycled plastic baskets.

        Coca-Cola said that using 97% recycled plastic can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 64%. Its partners will initially produce 15,000 recycled plastic baskets and then put them on the Dutch market. In the future, all Coca-Cola plastic baskets will be gradually converted to recycled materials.