The Coca-Cola Company will use recycled PET content to make bottles. Credit: Vincent Aguerre / Flickr.

The Coca-Cola Company has signed a loan agreement to support Netherlands-based Ioniqa Technologies in the production of high-grade recycled PET content.

The hard-to-recycle PET content will be used to manufacture bottles used by The Coca-Cola Company.

Ioniqa has developed a new recycling technology to convert PET waste such as coloured bottles into purified polymer building blocks, which are then reconfigured into high-quality PET.

Ioniqa is also constructing a 10-kilo metric tonne industrial plant in the Netherlands, and expects it to be commissioned next year.

Ioniqa CEO Tonnis Hooghoudt said: “Partnering with The Coca-Cola Company is a further validation of our journey to launch this unique process for transforming hard-to-recycle PET waste into high-quality, food-grade material.

“The Ioniqa process allows for significant recovery and reuse of plastic materials that might not otherwise be recycled, while delivering quality food-grade PET.”

“The Ioniqa process allows for significant recovery and reuse of plastic materials that might otherwise not be recycled.”

As a part of its ‘World Without Waste’ vision, Coca-Cola aims to create packaging from at least 50% recycled material by 2030. The investment in Ioniqa Technologies is part of this initiative.

The Coca-Cola Company chief innovation officer Robert Long said: “Our investment in new and pioneering recycling technologies is an opportunity for significant movement toward closing the loop and creating a circular economy for PET.

“We plan to continue investing in developing the right partnerships and initiatives.”

Ioniqa Technologies is a clean-tech spinoff from the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. It focuses on creating different products from waste using indigenous circular technology.