Austrian packaging manufacturer Alpla (Hard; www.alpla.com) has announced that its rPET production capacity in Mexico will increase to 51,000 t/y next year as expected, following the start-up of the Planeta facility in Cunduacán, which is currently being built in cooperation with Coca-Cola FEMSA (Mexico City; www.coca-colafemsa.com).

The plant is to produce 35,000 t/y, and the project also includes a facility to make more than 50,000 t/y in PET bottles from post-consumer waste. Alpla said another Mexican plant in Toluca currently has 16,000 t/y in available output for rPET, and carbon emissions from manufacturing the material there are 87% lower than for virgin PET production. The Toluca line is part of a joint venture with Coca-Cola FEMSA and US drinks giant Coca-Cola (Atlanta, Georgia; www.coca-colacompany.com),  

Related: Alpla acquires majority stake in Morocco's Atlantic Packaging 

The company reported that it also makes recycled HDPE in Toluca, and the 30,000 t/y facility creates 70% fewer emissions than a plant producing virgin resin. It noted that analyses from Austrian life cycle assessment specialist c7-consult (Lindau; www.c7-consult.at) said the carbon footprints of its four recycling facilities in Mexico and Germany are smaller than those making virgin materials.  

Alpla said it operates 13 plants for rPET and rHDPE worldwide.