Recorp

Recorp: canning plastics for the good. Inside the industry-leading facility

Environmental solutions don’t always look like green spaces and composting – the most effective often look very much like factories.

In November 2024, that’s exactly what opened in M20 Business Park, Manukau. The brainchild of ex-Air NZ CEO Rob Fyfe, Recorp’s can manufacturing has a goal to rid New Zealand of plastic bottles by 2030.

Travelling overseas, Rob saw that the rest of the world had embraced lightweight and highly recyclable aluminium. Back home, the only two manufacturers had hit capacity, and the market was already importing 200 million cans a year from Australia. Recorp CEO Bruce Parton says bottlers had no choice but to use plastic and glass, despite the limitations of both.

“Plastic is bad for the environment and bad for health. Glass is heavy, so needs more fuel to transport. They’re dinosaurs who haven’t been told they’re dead. Aluminium is the way of the future.”