Cola from Bruck now in recycled bottles

Raw materials are becoming scarcer.

That is why more and more companies are trying to save resources.

The Coca-Cola Group with its filling plant in Fürstenfeldbruck has recently started producing its half-liter one-way bottles from 100 percent recycled plastic (rPET).

More than a million bottles have already come off the production line.

Fürstenfeldbruck - “We want to do without primary raw materials as much as possible and reuse used raw materials. Since packaging makes up around 27 percent of our footprint in Germany, this is particularly important, ”says Operations Manager Patricia Irion.

Switching to the new material was not easy. Since the recycled PET has different properties than new plastics, the team around production manager Florian Fuchs had to adapt processes on the production line for disposable bottles - above all on the so-called blow molding machine. The system now blows the 0.5 liter bottles out of a blank made of 100 percent rPET. “We quickly found the right recipe. This is what we call the mix of settings that we have to make on the machine, for example the temperature for preheating the blanks and the time and pressure for blowing the bottle. Although the recycled material behaves differently, everything went well, ”says production manager Florian Fuchs.

According to Coca-Cola, the Fürstenfeldbruck plant is one of two in Bavaria and of several nationwide that increasingly use recycled material.

However, according to Coca-Cola, the reusable material is difficult to come by.

In addition, recycled PET is therefore significantly more expensive than new material.

Therefore, according to its own statements, the group is spending over 15 million euros on procurement in Germany this year.