Nestlé Waters North America announced today that it has signed a significant agreement with recycled PET plastic (rPET) supplier CarbonLITE, and that CarbonLITE will expand its US operations by building a third facility in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania.
The new contract builds upon Nestlé Waters' existing relationship with CarbonLITE, one of the largest producers of food-grade, post-consumer rPET, and allow the beverage company to further expand use of recycled materials in its packaging. The company currently purchases rPET from CarbonLITE's existing facilities in California and Texas.
"We are pleased that CarbonLITE will be locating a facility in a region important to our manufacturing footprint," says Bill Trackim, vice-president, head of Supply Chain and Procurement at Nestlé Waters North America. "Being able to purchase rPET in the area helps us better support the regional economy while promoting environmental sustainability through the use of renewable and recyclable materials in our packaging."
CarbonLITE anticipates the facility will be in full production by early 2020, and will have the ability to recycle over two billion post-consumer bottles a year. The new 200,000-square foot processing facility is anticipated to save 60,000 tons of carbon annually by using post-consumer materials and produce 80 million pounds per year of food-grade rPET pellets.