Nuevo León Recycles

With an investment of 50 million pesos, the PetStar Nuevo León plant expanded its PET collection facilities from 6,000 to more than 18,000 tons per year. The expansion is part of a national strategy that amounts to close to 3 thousand MDP, which Arca Continental, Coca-Cola Mexico and other bottlers will allocate to strengthen PetStar's collection and recycling capacity, increasing from 8 to more than 40 PET collection centers and plants throughout the country by 2027.

The Mexican Coca-Cola Industry has the goal of A World Without Waste, which consists of recycling the equivalent of 100% of the bottles it places on the market by 2030. General Escobedo, Nuevo Leon - June 5, 2023. As part of World Environment Day, Arca Continental inaugurated an expansion to the facilities of its PetStar Nuevo Leon PET collection plant, located in the municipality of General Escobedo. With this expansion, the facility will triple its collection capacity from 6,300 to 18,400 tons per year, equivalent to 811 million PET bottles, thus consolidating the social and environmental value of the local circular economy.

PetStar Escobedo's expansion will benefit more than 180 micro-businesses or collection partners dedicated to the purchase and sale of recyclable materials, promoting the social mobility of more than 11,000 people dedicated to the recovery of urban waste in 21 municipalities, including General Escobedo, Monterrey, Juarez, Hidalgo, San Nicolas de las Garza and Apodaca, in Nuevo Leon. 

Present at the announcement were Samuel García, Governor of Nuevo León; Iván Rivas Rodríguez, Secretary of Economy; Félix Arriata, Secretary of the Environment, and Emmanuel Loo, Undersecretary of Investment; Andrés Mijes, Mayor of Escobedo; Jorge Santos, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Arca Continental; Arturo Gutiérrez, CEO of Arca Continental; Enrique Pérez, Director of Arca Continental Mexico; Mario García, Vice President of Northern Operations for Coca-Cola Mexico; Patricio Caso, Vice President of Public Affairs, Communication and Sustainability for Coca-Cola Mexico; Jaime Cámara, CEO of PetStar, and employees of PetStar and Arca Continental. 

Samuel García, Governor of Nuevo León, stated that "Arca Continental is part of the economic growth and sustainable transformation of Nuevo León. And with this great example, we would like to invite Nuevo Leon's resident industries to continue transforming themselves to comply with the new international treaties, achieving lower gas emissions and greater recycling. Today our message is clear: growth is welcome, but always sustainable, taking care of our hills, rivers and natural resources in general. Let's take advantage of World Environment Day to start at home and sow this idea in our children, let's be proud citizens of Nuevo León and together let's move forward the best state in Latin America, the best state to be born, to grow, to educate and to recycle". 

This investment in Nuevo León is part of a national investment plan totaling close to 3 billion pesos, which will be used to strengthen PetStar's collection and recycling capacity, increasing from 8 to more than 40 PET collection centers and plants throughout the country by 2027, achieving the collection of the equivalent of 100% of the volume that Arca Continental and other bottlers of the Mexican Coca-Cola Industry (IMCC) place on the market. 

Jorge Santos, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Arca Continental emphasized that "Through PetStar, we can proudly say that a Mexican company is the leading recycler of PET in Latin America... We want each person to know that by choosing our products, they are making a positive difference by purchasing bottles that contain a percentage of recycled PET; that the boxes that transported them were made from recycled caps and labels; and that each recycled bottle contributed to the social mobility of 80 thousand people involved in their recovery". 

PetStar is led by Arca Continental, Coca-Cola Mexico and other bottlers, and currently recovers almost 7 out of every 10 bottles that its shareholders put on the market, with a circular economy model that generates economic, social and environmental value by promoting the formalization of PET recovery, as well as a recycling process free of CO2 emissions. 

Starting in 2023, PetStar will continue to increase the shared value of its operations to achieve the following results by 2027: 

1,700 to 4,000 direct jobs throughout the country. 

1,500 to 3,600 MSMEs engaged in the purchase and sale of recyclable materials. 

From 30,000 to 80,000 indirect jobs for waste pickers and urban waste collectors, promoting their social mobility. 

Patricio Caso, Coca-Cola Mexico's Vice President of Public Affairs, Communication and Sustainability, commented during the inauguration that "Our love for Mexico and commitment to sustainability are clear, and are materialized through concrete actions, such as the investment represented by this collection plant we are inaugurating today, and the one we are announcing for our recycling plant in Toluca." 

Caso also added that "at the Mexican Coca-Cola Industry we seek to remain close to the people, to be at every table, at every celebration and to continue growing, but never at the expense of the communities and our environment. For this reason, we will continue to redouble our efforts through our Love Multiplies platform, with which we generate alliances with authorities, civil organizations and society, to be agents of change." To conclude the event, the authorities and directors present invited the population of Neolon to exercise a shared responsibility as industry, government and citizens, taking advantage of this infrastructure, and highlighting the relevance behind a correct separation and disposal of recoverable waste until achieving its infinite transformation.