The new plant in Spartenburg, South Carolina, is part of the company's concerted drive to reduce the impact of its operations on the environment worldwide, as government and consumer pressures are pushing companies like Coca-Cola to fly the green flag.

Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) is forming a new company, Coca-Cola Recycling, to operate the plant and co-ordinate the collection of packaging waste.

"The launch of Coca-Cola Recycling marks an important milestone for CCE and the Coca-Cola system as we energize our efforts to reshape the recycling and sustainable packaging arena," said John Burgess, president and chief executive officer of the new unit.

However, the company did not set a date for meeting what it calls its "ambitious" target to recycle all of its plastic packaging waste.

At the new plant, the Coca-Cola will recycle polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic collected throughout the US.

Recycling packaging materials will also benefit the company financially, Burgess added, as both aluminium and PET have a high value in the current market, and there is currently not enough material to meet the increasing demand for them.

"Recycling makes perfect business sense," Burgess said, "as well as it being the right thing to do."

According to Forbes, Coca-Cola will invest $44m in loans and direct equity into the plant, which will employ around 150 people.

Although the plant is the first of its kind in the US, the Coca-Cola company has already built PET recycling factories in Australia, Austria Mexico, the Philippines and Switzerland.

The company this week released its corporate responsibility report for the year ending July 2007, in which it stated that Coca-Cola "is focused on package design, community recovery programs and package material reuse."

"Our system focuses on reducing both waste and the consumption of natural resources," the report said.

Advances made this year include packaging 85 per cent of its beverages in recyclable materials, the report said, while the other 15 per cent is delivered through bulk package systems, reducing transport emissions.

The company has also redesigned its classic Coca-Cola contour bottle, reducing the amount of glass used for each product.

"This new "Ultra" bottle saved 89,000 metric tons of glass in 2006, the CO2 equivalent of planting more than 13,000 acres of trees," the company claimed.

Other issues examined in the report include corporate governance, water wastage, workers rights, and energy and climate protection.