Chemco Group, a manufacturer of plastic packaging based in India, has commissioned its new food-grade recycled PET (rPET) recycling plant in the state of Gujarat.
The facility entails an investment of around Rs1.25bn ($13.7m).
The plant is set up to process more than a billion used PET bottles each year, converting them into rPET that can be directly used in food and beverage packaging.
The site is designed to maintain international standards for quality and safety, with the recycled material being approved by both the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), as well as meeting food-contact plastics requirements from the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
Operations at Sanand also comply with guidelines from the Bureau of Indian Standards concerning recycled materials.
By developing in-house recycling capabilities, Chemco empowers its brand partners to fulfil recycled-content mandates, extended producer responsibility (EPR) requirements and sustainability goals while maintaining product performance and food safety standards.
The plant employs a closed-loop system, giving Chemco oversight throughout the recycling process and reducing dependence on external suppliers and lengthy transportation routes.
This approach aims to provide steady product quality and supply volumes suited to large businesses in the beverage, FMCG, and food sectors.
Chemco Group managing director Vaibhav Saraogi said: "This facility represents a strategic shift in how Chemco approaches sustainability.
"Rather than treating recycling as an external dependency, we have built a fully integrated bottle-to-bottle ecosystem that gives our customers confidence in supply security, traceability, and compliance. This is not just an investment in infrastructure; it is an investment in the future of responsible packaging."
In 2024, Chemco announced an investment to expand its rigid packaging production capacity in Bahrain.
This initiative marked Chemco's third expansion in the country since it first set up a factory at the Bahrain International Investment Park (BIIP) in 2013.
