The move will help Coca‑Cola Great Britain to eliminate 29,000 tonnes of virgin plastic per annum
Coca Cola is set to introduce bottles made from 100% recycled plastic in Great Britain. (Credit: The Coca-Cola Company)
Coca‑Cola Great Britain (GB) has collaborated with Coca‑Cola Europacific Partners to launch sustainable bottles made from 100% recycled plastic.
The company has decided to use 100% recycled plastic in all on-the-go bottles across its entire range, including Coca-Cola Original Taste, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Dr Pepper and Lilt.
Coca‑Cola GB will begin the rollout of 100% recycled 500ml bottles this September.
The move will allow Coca‑Cola GB to increase the amount of recycled plastic material in smaller bottles from 50% to 100%, as well as eliminate 29,000 tonnes of virgin plastic per annum.
Coca‑Cola GB is also about to complete the transition from plastic shrink wrap to cardboard packaging across all multipacks, thereby enabling it to avoid the sale of over 30 million packs wrapped in plastic.
Coca‑Cola GB general manager Jon Woods said: “This announcement marks an important step towards our ambition to remove all non-recycled plastic from our bottles, and our global aim to help collect and recycle a bottle or can for everyone that we sell by 2025.
“But there is still more we as an industry can do in order to increase the availability of food-grade recycled plastic locally available in Great Britain.”
Coca‑Cola has been coordinating with the Scottish and Westminster governments and industry partners on a well-designed Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) to facilitate the efficient recycling of plastic bottles.
According to the company, an efficient DRS is planned for implementation in Scotland by July 2022. Later, it will be implemented in England and Wales.
In February this year, Coca-Cola announced that it started the trial of paper bottle prototype via an online retailer in Hungary.