Circular Plastics Australia partners with CCEP to establish Pacific PET recycling pathway

Circular Plastics Australia (CPA) is partnering with Coca‑Cola Europacific Partners Australia (CCEP) to help create a viable circular pathway for PET collected across Pacific Island nations, enabling used beverage bottles to be recycled back into new packaging in Australia.

The first shipment under the program, 9.4 tonnes of community‑collected PET from Vanuatu, has now arrived in Melbourne for processing. Additional shipments from Fiji and Papua New Guinea are expected in the coming months as the program expands across the region.

Rolling out across Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu, the initiative is forecast to recover up to 2,000 tonnes of PET in its first year, with the potential to scale to 6,000 tonnes per annum as collection systems and processing capacity grow.

For CCEP, the program represents an important early step in establishing a consistent, cross‑border pathway that allows PET collected in Pacific Island nations to be recycled into new beverage bottles, despite limited in‑market recycling infrastructure.

Pacific communities face disproportionately high impacts from plastic pollution, with most PET currently unable to be processed locally. By linking community collection programs with Australia’s established recycling system, the initiative enables Pacific‑collected PET to re‑enter the circular economy rather than being landfilled or leaking into the environment.

CCEP has worked with local partners to support the development of community collection programs that provide economic incentives, create job pathways and help reduce litter. Collected PET is flaked and densified locally before being transported to Australia for processing into high‑quality, food‑grade recycled PET (rPET).

Key investments supporting the program include funding and installing early‑stage processing equipment in Pacific communities, as well as the provision of pro bono ocean freight services by Swire Shipping to ensure logistically and economically viable transport.

Circular Plastics Australia PET, a joint venture between Pact Group, Cleanaway Waste Management, Asahi Beverages and Coca‑Cola Europacific Partners, operates large‑scale PET recycling facilities in Albury, New South Wales, and Altona North in Victoria.

Justin Knott, General Manager Sales and Marketing at Circular Plastics Australia (PET), said CPA’s facilities were established to process PET beverage bottles collected through Australia’s container deposit schemes and kerbside recycling systems, and that incorporating material from Pacific Island nations is a natural extension of that capability.

“The infrastructure we’ve built in Australia allows high‑quality PET to be recycled back into new bottles at scale,” Knott said. “Working with CCEP to include Pacific‑collected material helps strengthen circular outcomes across the region and demonstrates what’s possible when collection, logistics and demand are aligned.”

The recycled PET produced at CPA’s facilities is used by CCEP and Asahi Beverages to manufacture new beverage bottles, and by Pact Group to produce food packaging, closing the loop by returning used bottles back into everyday products