Biella, 03 August 2023 – Coca-Cola HBC Italia, the leading manufacturer and distributor of The Coca-Cola Company brand products in Italy, announces that the Gaglianico (BI) factory for the production of recycled PET (rPET) preforms becomes fully operational. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has in fact published the green light that now allows the plant to implement even the initial phase of the production of preforms, using the technologies available to transform recycled PET flakes, which arrive at the factory as a secondary raw material not yet suitable for food use, made of rPET resin suitable for contact with food.
In fact, if before the factory produced preforms from resin purchased from third-party suppliers, now it can finally carry out the entire process independently, starting from the transformation of PET flakes - even from non-food sources - into precious rPET resin. The resin will then be melted to create the preforms which, once they reach the production plants in Italy, will undergo a blowing process to become 100% recycled PET bottles that will contain the different drinks in the Coca-Cola portfolio.
"We are happy with this great and further step forward, which confirms how central our plant is in the implementation of a true circular economy in our country, guaranteeing a second life to PET which, if properly recycled, can return to the market again and again." says Stefano Lorenzon, Director of the CCHCP plant in Gaglianico (BI). "With this industrial site we are also going beyond our primary business and the news of EFSA's long-awaited opinion allows us to look beyond, making us even more protagonists of sustainability".
"This new milestone only confirms how much this factory is a unique example of innovation and sustainability in our country," comments Paolo Maggia, Mayor of Gaglianico. "Gaglianico is proud to host a plant at the forefront of the international scene."
Equipped with the most advanced technologies in the sector available to date, the Biella plant - which has enjoyed an investment of over 30 million euros, the largest in the history of the Coca-Cola HBC group - is able to produce 100% recycled PET preforms for the Coca-Cola HBC Italia plants in Nogara, Marcianise and Oricola for the bottling of the entire portfolio of drinks under The Coca-Cola Company brand, thus eliminating the need to use virgin plastic material. As further confirmation of the great innovation of this process, the Gaglianico plant has been included by the European Commission in the Union register for new technologies, recycling companies, recycling processes, recycling systems and decontamination plants, according to the new regulation 1616/2022.