From Ambassador (Plastics that are processed after being collected.)
2025/5/15
Plastics that are processed after being collected.
I have written before about the day when the collection of PET bottles took place. A few days afterward, I was able to visit the site where the collected PET bottles are processed.
At this Coca-Cola processing site, I was guided by Ms. Moira, the country manager of Coca-Cola, and Mr. Jeff McGuire, a sustainability expert who was visiting from Australia. At the place, the collected PET bottles were transported via conveyor belt to the top of crusher, then crushed into fine pieces and bagged. The aluminum cans are compressed separately in another corner to reduce their volume.
By the way, I learned that a total of 35,000 PET bottles and aluminum cans were collected in one day this time.
What I didn’t know until I visited the site was that what are being processed here was not only PET bottles. The mountain of red plastic cases stacked up near the site were once used for transporting glass bottles and such. These cases, which are no longer necessary, are also crushed here and exported for recycling. Since these cases are made by different kind of plastics, another recycling company will accept them for recycling.
These plastics were once produced overseas and brought to this place. I believe it’s good that once they finish their role here, they are processed and are taken abroad again.
If they couldn’t be recycled overseas, this mountain of cases would have been discarded somewhere in Samoa.
I have written before about the day when the collection of PET bottles took place. A few days afterward, I was able to visit the site where the collected PET bottles are processed.
At this Coca-Cola processing site, I was guided by Ms. Moira, the country manager of Coca-Cola, and Mr. Jeff McGuire, a sustainability expert who was visiting from Australia. At the place, the collected PET bottles were transported via conveyor belt to the top of crusher, then crushed into fine pieces and bagged. The aluminum cans are compressed separately in another corner to reduce their volume.
By the way, I learned that a total of 35,000 PET bottles and aluminum cans were collected in one day this time.
What I didn’t know until I visited the site was that what are being processed here was not only PET bottles. The mountain of red plastic cases stacked up near the site were once used for transporting glass bottles and such. These cases, which are no longer necessary, are also crushed here and exported for recycling. Since these cases are made by different kind of plastics, another recycling company will accept them for recycling.
These plastics were once produced overseas and brought to this place. I believe it’s good that once they finish their role here, they are processed and are taken abroad again.
If they couldn’t be recycled overseas, this mountain of cases would have been discarded somewhere in Samoa.