AMUT’s Winning Strategy for Recycling Lightweight PET Bottles

2024 marked a significant transitional moment for Coca-Cola as it moves towards its sustainability goal of reducing PET usage by 2025. According to a statement from the company, this transition will cut the annual use of virgin PET by an equivalent of nearly 800 million bottles by 2025 compared to 2024. This project represents a major step towards reducing environmental impact while maintaining bottle durability and functionality.

Coca-Cola’s new initiative will reduce the weight of its sparkling beverage bottles from 21 g to 18.5 g in the United States and Canada. Coca-Cola has redesigned its PET bottles, minimising the weight of its beverage portfolio with a slimmer design that retains the same overall height and diameter.

In the developing plastics industry, these lighter bottles present new challenges for recycling facilities, as they are more prone to damage during the mechanical recycling process.

AMUT’s technology is ready to handle this updated packaging, meeting customer needs effectively. Specifically, equipment such as its patented De-Labeller and wet shredder has been designed and tested, achieving over 95% efficiency in label removal on lightweight bottles. The redesigned grinder is intended to process a high volume of bottles while minimising fine particle generation.

The Envicco project in Thailand is a highlight, over the past three years this project saw AMUT’s equipment process approximately 45,000-50,000 lightweight bottles. This case study is particularly important due to its high percentages of both PVC and non-PVC shrink sleeve labels, managed through a double de-labeller configuration.

In the first stage, AMUT’s De-Labeller performs a dry cleaning action that removes most shrink-sleeve labels. The second unit, a wet De-Labeller, operates as a cold pre-wash, helping to remove contaminants without damaging the bottles or losing bottlenecks during processing.

AMUT’s fully automated system is designed to meet the most demanding bottle-to-bottle applications, ensuring the removal of all label types, preserving bottlenecks and bodies, and maintaining low operational costs.

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