Press office

The joint venture, which has involved an equity investment by Coca-Cola, will result in the construction of a new recycling facility at ECO Plastic’s current site near Gainsborough. ECO Plastics will supply Coca-Cola with high quality recycled PET to enable the achievement of Coca-Cola’s target for plastic bottles to contain at least 25% of recycled material by the time of the London Olympics in 2012.

ECO Plastics is raising £10m by way of funding for the joint project. The facility is expected to be operational next year and will result in the creation of 45 new jobs.

The current ECO Plastics facility is the largest plastic waste processing plant in Europe, capable of processing more than 2 billion bottles per year. The joint venture will more than double Britain’s ability to process plastic drinks bottles which will increase from 35,000 tonnes per year to 75,000 tonnes.

The Eversheds team was led by corporate partner, Robin Skelton, assisted by solicitors Mary Kelly and Jonathan Pollard.

Robin Skelton commented:

“It is a pleasure to have advised ECO Plastics on this important strategic collaboration with Coca-Cola. The joint venture will transform the public’s ability to purchase plastic bottles containing recycled material, something which has been described by DEFRA waste minister Lord Henley as an “innovative blueprint for the future.”

Jonathan Short, Managing Director of ECO Plastics said

“ECO Plastics has made huge strides in developing our business in recent years to become the UK’s leading plastic recycler. We are delighted to be partnering with a company of the calibre of Coca-Cola Enterprises and view this pioneering agreement as the next important step for our own business and the industry as a whole. We are now in discussions with a number of banks and other investors about raising capital expenditure funding and have so far received a very positive response."