PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2018

CAPS & CLOSURES 24 PET planet Insider Vol. 19 No. 10/18 www.petpla.net Coca-Cola Amatil breaks new ground with fully recyclable sports cap All-HDPE sports cap by Ruari McCallion Ruari McCallion visited Coca-Cola Amatil’s plant on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia, for the official opening of the company’s new sports cap production line and spoke to senior executives about innovation and market trends ‘Down Under’. Eastern Creek is supposed to be half an hour’s drive from Downtown Sydney, Australia, but heavy traffic and construction work on a new highway meant that the journey took closer to 60 minutes than 30. Luckily, we had set off in plenty of time for an important event: the official launch of the SyLon top, Coca-Cola Amatil’s new sports cap. The company’s managing director and senior management were all on hand to see the culmination of two years’ hard work, with the very first production run. The Coca-Cola Amatil Packaging Services Division at Eastern Creek, Sydney is quite extensive and houses all of the equipment and manufactur- ing lines needed for the production of preforms and closures for Coca-Cola, Fanta and a range of other drinks. It serves a market that extends beyond Australia’s shoreline, to New Zealand and South-East Asia. The new sports cap is something of a breakthrough: it is made entirely of HDPE (high density polyethylene), rather than the traditional mix of HDPE and PP (polypropylene). Being made entirely of one type of plastic means that it is much easier to recycle; the cap can be disposed of by the consumer into the same waste collection and recycling stream as the PET bottle. With the world becoming more and more conscious of the need to recycle, this is an idea whose time has definitely come. As well as recycling, a single material means more effective use of raw mate- rials, and a simpler production process. After the official opening ceremony, performed by Coca-Cola Amatil manag- ing director Alison Watkins along with representatives of the Eastern Creek facility’s management and workforce, we were able to sit down and discuss the processes involved in designing a new closure system. First, we spoke to Coca-Cola Amatil executives David Grant, Supply chain director; David Chalmers, Operations Manager, PSD; and Martin Orzinski, General Manager, Operations. A history of innovation Coca-Cola Amatil is no stranger to innovation. The SyLon 1881 ‘shorty’ cap was invented here, as were Coke Zero, Ginger Coke, Coca-Cola Orange No Sugar, the Australian Packaging award-winning ‘easy crush’ bottle, warm-fill nitro (nitrogen) dose technol- ogy which replaced the original hotfill production and the ‘personal names’ “share a Coke” bottle campaign. “We are always thinking about inno- vation – we have a hunger to do things right,” said Martin Orzinski. “In order to be successful, we recognise that we continually have to be driving forward.” Coca-Cola Amatil’s innovative culture is driven partly by necessity. Australia is geographically large but it is a long way away from the big, established markets of Europe and North America, and pretty far away from the fast-growing markets of China, India and South-East Asia, as well. It has to be self-reliant. Security of supply “We imported sports caps from Switzerland and Spain, from Bericap and Corvaglia, for years,” said David Grant. Its share of the total global market escalated way beyond origi- nal expectations. “Out of 358 million sports cap units a year used by Coca- Cola worldwide, Coca-Cola Amatil uses 120 million. We first undertook a feasibility study into making caps here at Eastern Creek in 2013.” The time was not right then but growing demand, added to a global short- age of production capacity, raised the pressure to ensure continuity of supply. Having considered other pos- sibilities, the decision was made to look more closely into the commercial feasibility of making their own caps. Coca-Cola Amatil’s new SyLon Mercury sports cap is made entirely of HDPE – a world first The heart of the production line for CCA’s Mercury sports cap