PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2021

MATERIALS / RECYCLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 03/21 www.petpla.net 20 BariQ and Coca-Cola Atlantic launch strategic partnership to increase Egypt’s domestic PET bottle collection rate. Challenging conditions BariQ, Egypt’s first bottle-to-bottle recycled PET facility, has been operating in Egypt since 2010 and has annual production capacity of 15,000 t of food grade PET pellets that are FDA, Efsa and Reach approved. The company has announced the launch of a strategic partnership with Coca-Cola Atlantic to increase collection rates of used consumer PET bottles and to raise the quality and supply of bales. The partnership is in line with Coca-Cola’s “World Without Waste” initiative, launched in 2018. A new pre-sorting facility, installed at BariQ’s plant, with the support of Ministry of Environment and Ministry of International Cooperation, was formally opened by Coca-Cola Atlantic and Bariq in December 2020. Its advanced Tomra bottle sorter uses infra-red detection technology to sort different types of plastics, such as PVC, single/multi- layer plastics and coloured PET and produces statistical analyses of the per- centage of each type. It can separate clear PET bottles at up to 10t/h, equiva- lent to 500,000b/h. The project was fully designed and managed by the BariQ technical team alongside the technol- ogy providers, from concept through infrastructure design and all the way to the launch of the facility. Egypt’s lack of waste collection and segregation infrastructure means that it faces many challenges in solid waste management, leading to negative envi- ronmental impacts such as depositing plastic waste on the Nile River banks, in sanitary drains and uncontrolled landfills. An regulated “Informal Sector” leads to the proportion of clear PET bot- tles in the overall plastic bottle collec- tion being as low as 5-10%; this badly impacts the quality of recycled products. The installation of the new pre- sorting facility means that BariQ will be able to accept low- and medium-quality plastic waste collected from the Nile’s riverbanks and from sanitary drains, separate clear PET bottles with up to 85% efficiency, segregate other types of plastic, and produce statistical data for each type of waste. This will reduce the negative impact of plastic waste disposal on the environment and will help Coca-Cola Atlantic to implement the “World Without Waste” initiative to increase collection rates in Egypt. According to Usama Zaki, BariQ CEO, the BariQ and Coca-Cola Atlantic collaboration is the first step towards a solid alliance between government, private sector and NGOs to comply with the implementation of Egypt’s 2030 SDGs vision in solid waste manage- ment generally, and plastic recycling in particular. “With the new pre-sorting facility we expect to increase the collection rate up to 80% within the next 3 years. This will dramatically increase the recycling rate in Egypt and, consequently, help Coca- Cola Atlantic to achieve at least 25% recycled content in 2025 domestically,” he said. This will be in line with Coca- Cola Atlantic’s sustainability targets. It will create a structured closed loop that will create job opportunities, attract envi- ronmentally conscious investments and ultimately lead to a successful circular economy model. www.bariq-eg.com Tomra bottle sorter A new pre-sorting facility was opened by Coca-Cola Atlantic and Bariq in December 2020 with the aim to increase the PET bottle collection and recycling rate in Egypt.