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Alpla has announced that the first stone has been laid for a recycling plant in Mexico, that will have the capacity to process 50,000 tonnes of post-consumer PET bottles each year. More than $60 million is being invested in the plant, which will be located in Cunduacán in the state of Tabasco. The project is the result of a joint venture between Alpla and bottler Coca-Cola Femsa. The two companies are aiming to boost the circular economy in the states of south-east Mexico with the new plant. In addition, the construction and operation of Planta Nueva Ecología de Tabasco – known as PLANETA – are expected to create more than 20,000 direct and indirect jobs. Alpla Mexico and Coca-Cola Femsa – along with Coca-Cola Mexico – have already been collaborating since 2005 to run Industria Mexicana de Reciclaje (IMER), which is said to be the first food-grade PET recycling plant in Latin America. Commenting on the establishment of PLANETA, Alpla managing director for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, Carlos Torres Ballesteros, said: “This new recycling plant for food-grade PET will be Alpla’s third recycling plant in Mexico, which makes us a spearhead at a national level and a recycling benchmark for the rest of the world”. “As part of our commitment to sustainability, Alpla will invest more than €50 million every year between 2021 and 2025 to expand its global recycling capacity.”