NZ Drinks has opened a new “multi-million dollar” production line at its site in Waikato, New Zealand, which is capable of producing 220 million bottles made from recycled PET (rPET) plastic annually.
The company said the introduction of the line will see “a significant proportion” of New Zealand’s still bottled water packaged in recycled plastic bottles.
NZ Drinks director Kyle Osborne says the move is part of the firm’s long-term journey towards a more sustainable product.
“In theory, there is no limit to the number of times the plastic from a bottle of water can be recycled into new products – what we are missing in NZ is the infrastructure necessary to achieve this.
“Currently the economies of scale needed to introduce a suitable recycling facility are not there and Kiwis simply don’t consume enough of this type of product to make it viable – which leaves us out of step with bigger international markets such as Australia.”
The end goal of NZ Drinks is to see an industry that is capable of capturing consumer waste like empty plastic bottles and continuously reusing them.
Company director Tony Vesper believes the use of rPET should become standard for still bottled water in New Zealand.
“With annual sales across our portfolio increasing at 139%, our Pure NZ label is the country’s fastest growing still water brand and will now be packaged in 100% recycled plastic bottles,” he said.
“We first introduced recycled plastic into some of our ranges two years ago but the new line will allow us to continue to expand production of bottled water in recycled packaging, while at the same time substantially improving efficiency by reducing the weight of rPET used per bottle.
“The new line uses the latest technology from Krones, Germany, and is capable of forming around 28,000 600ml bottles from recycled raw material and then filling them with water every hour.”
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