SEE Students Experience Hong Kong’s Circular Economy Firsthand at New Life Plastics and Swire Coca-Cola
A group of SEE postgraduate students recently participated in a field trip led by Prof. Sai Kishore Ravi, Assistant Professor at SEE, to New Life Plastics and Swire Coca-Cola, gaining firsthand insights into Hong Kong’s plastic recycling ecosystem and circular-economy practices.
The visit built on an in-class case study on water and waste sustainability in beverage production, offering students a real-world perspective on how major industries in Hong Kong are advancing closed-loop models that connect collection, recycling, and new bottle production.
At New Life Plastics (NLP), located in the EcoPark in Tuen Mun, students toured Hong Kong’s first food-grade-ready plastic recycling facility, where post-consumer PET beverage bottles and HDPE personal-care bottles are processed into high-quality rPET and rHDPE flakes. NLP highlighted its role as an integrated partner in Hong Kong’s value chain—linking government, producers, and consumers through a model often described as “recycle, reborn, and rebottle,” enabling discarded plastics to be transformed into new, high-value products.
Students also had the opportunity to learn from the Tin Shui Wai community collection project, whose team shared insights into neighbourhood-level collection initiatives, public engagement challenges, and approaches to building trust in Hong Kong’s recycling and recovery pathways. Their perspectives complemented the technical overview provided by NLP and helped students contextualize the entire recycling ecosystem from community participation to industrial processing.
The second stop at Swire Coca-Cola’s Sha Tin Plant showcased how the recycled materials produced at New Life Plastics are integrated into Coca-Cola’s manufacturing process to create new rPET beverage bottles. Coca-Cola is now the first enterprise in Hong Kong to produce new bottles using locally recycled plastics, made possible through its collaboration with NLP and long-term investment in Hong Kong’s recycling infrastructure. Students also learned about the company’s broader sustainability strategies, including lightweight bottle design, clear-bottle transitions, label-free packaging, and the reintroduction of returnable glass bottles.
The School expresses its appreciation to the leadership and staff of New Life Plastics and Swire Coca-Cola HK Ltd for their warm hospitality and for providing SEE students with a valuable experiential learning opportunity.
