Suntory Holdings Co., Ltd. and Suntory Beverage & Food Co., Ltd. announced on August 19 that they will adapt their used-PET-bottle recycling technology, “FtoP® Direct Recycling Technology” (hereinafter “FtoP Technology”), for Southeast Asian collection conditions and begin producing 100% recycled PET bottles in Thailand from 2028. The recycled bottles will be introduced progressively into product containers sold in the country.
FtoP Technology is a material recycling process — the name standing for “Flake to Preform” — in which collected PET bottles are crushed into flakes, washed, melted at high temperature, filtered, and then formed directly into preforms. The trademark has been registered in Japan jointly with Kyoei Sangyo Co., Ltd. The technology was co-developed by the Suntory Group together with Kyoei Sangyo and two other companies; compared with the use of virgin fossil-derived feedstock, it is estimated domestically to reduce CO₂ emissions by approximately 70%, and has been in use in Japan since 2018. This marks the first deployment of the technology in Southeast Asia.
In connection with this initiative, Iwatani Corporation and Indorama Ventures PCL established a joint venture, Indovida (Thailand) Limited, in July 2026 to manufacture preforms using FtoP Technology. The facility is planned to have an annual production capacity equivalent to approximately 400 million bottles, with the entire output to be supplied to the Suntory Group’s Suntory Pepsico Beverage Thailand (hereinafter “SPBT”). From 2028 onwards, SPBT will progressively introduce the delivered preforms into its product containers.
The FtoP Technology currently deployed in Japan presupposes that used PET bottles can be collected stably at or above a certain quality level. Accordingly, in countries and regions lacking an equivalent collection system, it was necessary to ensure safety of the recycled PET bottles by guaranteeing quality within the technological process equivalent to that achieved in Japan. In this initiative, Suntory Holdings is responsible for planning and has worked with equipment manufacturers NGR and Husky to develop the technology, optimising the sorting standards and decontamination processes for the used-PET-bottle feedstock to deploy FtoP Technology in a form suited to Thailand’s collection quality. The Suntory Group aims to use the Thailand commercialisation as a springboard for rolling out FtoP Technology across other Southeast Asian countries.
Since 2011, the Suntory Group has pursued closed-loop (bottle-to-bottle style) recycling, building collection and sorting systems and quality management frameworks for used PET bottles. The Group aims to switch all PET bottles used globally to recycled or plant-derived materials and to eliminate all new use of fossil-derived feedstock.
【Press Release】Introducing “FtoP® Direct Recycling Technology” in Thailand
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※ The images at the top and within the article are sourced from the press release. The image at the top is an illustration of the “FtoP® Direct Recycling Technology” equipment to be deployed in Thailand.
