Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) has launched a major joint venture to recycle tens of thousands of used plastic Coke bottles and turn the resulting material into new ones.

Lord Taylor, the environment minister, opened the Continuum Recycling facility in Hemswell, Lincolnshire, stating such a project not only made good business sense “but will help us achieve our ultimate aim of being a zero-waste green economy”.

Continuum is a joint venture between CCE and local plastics recycler ECO Plastics.

Simon Baldry, managing director of CCE, said the group’s commitment and its £5m contribution to the £15m operation showed it was serious about setting the industry standard for sustainable packaging.

“The opening of this state-of-the-art facility will transform recycling in this country and ensure that we achieve our ambition of incorporating 25 per cent recycled PET in our plastic bottles,” he added.

Coca-Cola plans to sell around 20 million bottles of soft drinks at the London Olympics, where it is a major sponsor, and every empty bottle collected will be reprocessed at the Continuum facility.