The Riverside, California plant, owned by CarbonLITE, is expected to recycle roughly two billion PET plastic bottles a year for customers like Pepsi and Nestle.
Previously, most plastic bottles collected in California’s curbside and redemption value programs were exported to China and downcycled into polyester fiber. However, PET can be recycled numerous times, turning bottles back into bottles.
CarbonLITE specializes in processing used plastic bottles into bottle-grade PET pellets that can then be used to manufacture new plastic beverage bottles. This conserves virgin resources, reduces landfills, and capitalizes on the energy already invested in making existing plastic products.
Source: Sustainable Brands