Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) is to invest €6.5m in a plastic bottle recycling plant in France, as part of its latest efforts to increase the amount of greener material for its new bottles by 70 per cent.

The drinks giant’s bottling company announced yesterday that it will form a €9m joint venture with APPE, the packaging division of La Seda de Barcelona (LSB), to help expand the capacity of its polyethylene terephthalate (PET) recycling facility in Beaune, Burgundy, by 70 per cent.

CCE will contribute €6.5m to the €9m venture, to help pay for a tower that can trial new recycling techniques, increase capacity to recycle an extra 390 million PET bottles each year, and boost research and development efforts.

The investment follows a similar joint venture between CCE and ECO Plastics in the UK, which resulted in the development of a £15m bottle recycling plant in north Lincolnshire that has doubled the amount of recycled PET available in the British market.

The so-called Continuum plant recycled 10.5 million bottles from Olympic Games venues over the summer, turning them into 42 million new bottles within six weeks of being thrown away.

A spokeswoman for CCE told BusinessGreen that the French programme will use similar technology to the Continuum plant but a different supplier. She added that procurement for the extension had already started, and that engineering and installation will begin later this year.

“We are delighted to be working with our long-term partner CCE in such an exciting and ground-breaking initiative,” said APPE general manager Martin Hargreaves.

“We have always emphasised the importance of both end-market support and long-term investment to fully realise the potential of PET recycling. It is hugely encouraging that CCE has the same vision and commitment and is keen to play such a pivotal role in helping to assure the successful long-term future of recycled PET.”