Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) has announced an upgrade to its Richlands plant in Queensland that will bring it closer to achieving its $450 million PET bottle Asia Pacific conversion strategy.
The project will cost CCA $2.5 million and it has also attracted $1.3 million in funding through the federal government's Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment program. It is expected to produce the company's lightest PET bottles globally and cut carbon emissions at the plant by 32 per cent.
The upgrade will increase bottle filling efficiency, boost production line performance, reduce wastage during the carbonisation process and reduce energy costs, according to CCA's supply chain manager for Queensland, Dermot Hawkin.
“The technology will save CCA's Richlands facility up to $285,000 a year in energy costs,” he said.
“It will also help safeguard us against rising energy expenses, while significantly reducing the environmental impact of our packaging.”
According to the company, the new PET blow filling technology at the plant will be used to make 1.25-litre, 1.2-litre and two-litre bottles for its main drinks brands.
It will enable the company to manufacture and design new lightweight bottles using up to 20 per cent less PET than its existing bottles, reduce the company's total carbon footprint of each bottle by an average of 22 per cent.
CCA's PET blow filling project aims to convert all its bottling facilities in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Fiji to the new technology by 2015.
