Future of Mexico's PET Packaging
– Balancing Trade, Trends & Technologies!

“As the world’s second largest consumer of PET bottles and the biggest consumer of cola products, the average Mexican citizen drinks and discards two bottles per day. That equals nearly six kilograms of PET bottles per capita annually, contributing to a yearly national total of about 750,000 tons of PET. A recent survey found that, for the typical Mexican household, sodas constitute the third largest expense, after tortillas and milk.”                 

                                                                                                                  Source: OurWorld 2.0, April 2013

Mexico is the epicenter of PET conversion boom in Latin America! Increasing demand for bottled drinks and consumerism has made Mexico a key target for the PET supply chain; from resin producers to bottlers to traders and solution providers. A country traditionally dependent on virgin resin imports, recycling is taking higher prominence as efficient post-consumer PET bottles collection rates and greater capacity to produce bottle to bottle food-grade resin drives the momentum of PET packaging in the region.

Nonetheless, Latin American region led by Mexico are still key targets for global resin producers in North America and Asia. As companies move toward sustainability, ‘green packaging’ and bio-feedstock, what’s in store for the LATAM PET markets? What are consumer preferences that’s repositioning packaging trends? How will global PET sector impact trade balances and pricing in Mexico and LATAM?

Confirmed Site Visit to Petstar SA de CV’s food-grade PET recycling facility in Toluca on 20^th Nov

PetStar is a sustainability Project born from the joint efforts of Coca-Cola de México and the Mexican bottlers Arca Continental, Bepensa, Corporación Del Fuerte, Corporación Rica, Embotelladoras del Nayar and Embotelladora de Colima who, after the recent expansion finished in May of 2013 with the top class advanced technology, is capable to recycle 65,000 tons of PET per year, equivalent to 3,100 million bottles, efficiently transforming them into 50,000 tons of High Quality Post Consumer Food Grade PET Resin for the manufacturing of new highly sustainable bottles with recycling content.

With this relevant investment in AMUT and BUHER technologies and new capacity, PetStar becomes the Largest Food Grade PET Recycling Plant in the world, and due to its large scale and integration from the collection of bottles from the environment until the incorporation of post-consumer PET resin in new bottles with recycling content, PetStar is one of the most competitive entities of its kind globally.