"The construction of a plastic bottle/PET recycling plant by PT Veolia Services Indonesia and (the decision by) Danone-AQUA (of) using (recycled) plastic waste (products) demonstrates the concrete commitment of the two companies to support sustainable development,” the minister said in a written statement released on Wednesday.
The plant has been built on 22 thousand square meters of land in the Pasuruan Industrial Estate Rembang (PIER), East Java, with the building itself covering an area of seven thousand square meters, Kartasasmita informed.
The construction of the recycling plant kicked off in March, 2019. Built at an estimated cost of Rp600 billion, the Veolia Indonesia plant has the capacity to produce 25 thousand tons of recycled plastic (RPET) meeting the best food security standard (food-grade quality) every year, the minister said.
The plant, which has employed more than 200 local workers, will use modern technology to separate caps and labels from bottles quickly, he added.
The construction of the recycling plant demonstrates the contribution of Veolia Indonesia and Danone-AQUA to social and environmental aspects, including the effort to make Indonesia cleaner, Kartasasmita remarked.
He said he hoped that investment in the plastic bottle recycling plant will strengthen the recycling ecosystem as well as the circular economy and boost plastic waste collection efforts in Indonesia.
The construction of the plastic bottle recycling plant also aligns with the government's efforts to achieve the target of reducing plastic in the sea by up to 70 percent by 2025, he added.
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Translator: Sella Panduarsa G/Suharto
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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