Reliance Announces Doubling of PET bottles Recycling Capacity

The move is part of RIL’s commitment to lead the industry on circular economy, enhance its sustainability quotient and bolster the entire polyester and polymer value chain.

As a part of this endeavour, Srichakra Ecotex India will build and operate exclusively for RIL the new recycled PSF – Recron Green Gold and PET flakes wash-line in Andhra Pradesh, the company said in a statement.

RIL’s initiative to more than double its recycling capacity to 5 billion post-consumer PET bottles will ensure India maintains over 90% recycling rate, it said.

Commenting on the development, Vipul Shah, COO – Petrochemicals Business, RIL, said that the expansion of PET recycling capacity was part of Mukesh Ambani’s vision to transform company’s legacy business into “sustainable, circular and net zero carbon materials business and support the entrepreneurs to take risk throughout the value chain”.

“RIL has underwritten the entire production from Srichakra’s facility to provide support for development of the business,” he further said.

RIL currently recycles PET bottles at its Barabanki, Hoshiarpur and Nagothane plants. The post-consumer PET bottles are used as a raw material for manufacturing re-cycled polyester fiber. The fibers manufactured through this process are branded as Recron GreenGold and RIL through its Hub Excellence Partners (HEP) (selected downstream mills) manufactures R | Elan GreenGold fabrics, one of the greenest fabrics in the world.

At present, RIL converts more than 2 billion post-consumer PET bottles into fibers annually. With addition of Srichakra capacity RIL will be instrumental in converting about 5 billion used PET bottles into value-added fibers, the company said.