Coca-Cola, the world’s largest bottling company announced in July that all its bottled brands distributed in European Union countries will be “entirely made from recycled plastic.”
The decision will replace nearly 10,000 metric tons of virgin plastic. Coca-Cola estimates it will use 66,138 metric tons of recycled plastic in 2019. Beginning in 2020, Honest Tea, GlacéauSmartwater, Chaudfontaine brands, and Swiss-marketed HBC water will be bottled in recycled PET (rPET).
To expand the availability of plastic stock, Sprite will no longer be bottled in green PET, according to the company.
Ron Lewis, chief supply chain officer at Coca-Cola European Partners said, “We know people have high expectations of companies to make the products they love in a sustainable way, and we’re committed to meeting those expectations. Ultimately, our goal is to ensure that every bottle or can we sell is collected, recycled, and reused. By moving Sprite from a green bottle to a clear bottle, the material can easily be recycled and used again to make another bottle.”
Coca-Cola first began using rPET in the 1990s and has since invested in enhanced recycling technologies to improve the availability of food-grade rPET for bottles.The company aims to make all its consumer packaging 100% recyclable by 2025 and to ensure that its packaging is made of at least 50% recycled material by 2030.