PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2013

EDITOURS REPORTS 28 PET planet insider Vol. 14 No. 09/13 www.petpla.net this is that they have now also found a way to treat waste derived from concentrates. In the plants extra spaces have been earmarked for the collection of production waste. It is chiefly companies licensed by the Bolivian State that take care of the recyclables. Part of this strategy is a social project where young people who are recovering from addictions to alcohol or other drugs can find themselves a new job. The project involves processing empty PET bottles and turning them into brushes for street sweepers. www.cbn.bo February 28, 2013 Embol S.A., Santa Cruz We met: Roberto Francina, Technical Director Coca Cola Bolivia Refillable, disposable, recyclable When it comes to filling operations, Embol, Coca Cola’s licensee in Bolivia, is not just using glass and one-way PET. They are also using refillable PET. Ever since 2002, Roberto Francina, Technical Director of Embol, has been consistently building up his plants. Roberto Francino in his office from which he controls all four plants in Bolivia. In his hand he is holding the 190ml Coca Cola bottle. With a total of 260 million bpa, Coca Cola Bolivia is the largest producer of PET bottles in Bolivia. Coca Cola produces its brand name products in four plants across the country. Its headquarters are located in Santa Cruz. What is special about Bolivia is the refillable PET bottle. The 2l bottle, weighing in at 107g, is reasonably stable and can be re-used a number of times. Roberto has the refillable bottle printed directly. This means less rubbish in the washing line and, most importantly, he knows what product was previ- ously in the bottle. Nevertheless, he still has to make use of a specialist “sniffer” who checks every returned bottle for prohibited substances. There is no deposit on the refillable bottles but 93 % of the bottles sold still come back. Despite the fact that the system is working, around 60% of the filling operations fall into the one-way category, 30% consists of recyclable glass and a mere 10 % recyclable PET. A few years ago things were different; in those days the recyclable system was dominant. This was reflected in the filling lines. Recyclable glass and refillable PET and later also the one-way PET were being processed on the same filling line. These lines are still running today, although the real growth is in the PET refillables sector. In 2003, PET refillables amounted to 180 million litres, today, in 2013, Roberto’s filling operations account for 675 million litres of CSD. The associated lines have also devel- oped correspondingly; essentially these are Sidel stretch blow moulders in block format for PET one-way plus Krones fillers. Only now can they look forward to a new PET refill line for the plant at the end of the year –the first for many, many years. Although the plant in Santa Cruz has shown consistent growth, Roberto Francino has succeeded in maintaining a rational production structure. The materials for all four lines installed (two refill, two one way) come from one side of the plant; the wet sections are located next to and parallel to one another (see photo) and the packing lines follow, likewise parallel to them. It is only the 40,000m² stores that he has had to banish to a site three kilometres away; had he not done so, the situation here could have become confusing. The mix of refill and one-way is also the reason why Roberto has waited so long before introducing the light- weight PCO 1881. The combined glass/PET lines cannot be converted. However, he is now looking at converting all the one-way bottles to the lightweight closure at the end of the year. Since the 2l bottle accounts for some 50% of filling operations, Roberto is paying special attention to this bottle; before embarking on the closure conversion, he is keen to optimise the 2l bottle from a weight point of view, getting it down from 56g to 48g. He has already changed the labels. One or two exceptions apart, he has since last year managed to get away from the sleeve labels and is now working exclusively with roll feed labels. They offer a sharper printed image, and they are also better suited to his high speed lines. Roberto has a host of glass formats to cope with – 1l, 1.25l, 1l, 0.6l and 0.19l. Here the 190ml bottle is the lynchpin of the marketing strategy. For the past 18 years this has cost the customer one Boliviano. Roberto has made every effort to maintain the price at this level but in the end cost pressures caused a re-think and the price is now 1.5 Bolivianos.Up to now he has been able to keep up with fast pace of growth, however he would like to have more lines. In the season all the filling lines operate round the clock and in the off-season he likes to get on with main- tenance jobs. He is hoping, with the new PET refill line, to at least take some of the pressure off as far as the refill lines are concerned. 360° 360°