Indorama Ventures’ new recycling facility to recycle two billion PET plastic bottles annually

Thailand-based Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL) has announced it will build a facility in Karawang, West Java, Indonesia, to recycle almost two billion plastic bottles a year in support of the government’s plan to reduce ocean debris.

The facility, which is scheduled to launch in 2023, will also create 217 new jobs. It is part of IVL’s commitment to divert post-consumer PET bottles away from waste and back into a circular economy. The recycling plant will provide the washed and shredded post-consumer bottles as PET flake feedstock to produce recycled resin that is suitable for food contact use.

Yashovardhan Lohia, IVL Chief Sustainability Officer, said: “We are pleased to contribute to the Indonesian economy by adding 217 ‘green jobs’ as well as indirect employment to the area. Today’s announcement is possible because of Indonesia’s ambitious national plan to reduce marine plastic debris by 70 per cent, reduce solid waste by 30 per cent, and handle 70 per cent of solid waste by 2025.”

D K Agarwal, CEO of Combined PET, IOD and Fibers Business at Indorama Ventures, added: “The Indonesia Government’s leadership on waste allows us to invest in the infrastructure needed. Giving waste an economic value, as feedstock for new bottles, also drives improvements in waste collection systems.”

In 2019 IVL announced its aim of recycling a minimum of 750,000 metric tons of PET globally by 2025, investing up to $1.5bn (~€1.27bn) to achieve this. IVL’s new plant in Karawang, along with its other recycling facilities in Southeast Asia, will work with existing PET flake production facilities in Indonesia.