eBusiness Weekly
Company sets goal to recycle a bottle or can for everyone it sells by 2030
Tinashe Makichi
The Coca-Cola Company said it is fundamentally reshaping its approach to packaging, with a global goal to help collect and recycle the equivalent of 100 percent of its packaging by 2030.
This goal is the centerpiece of the company’s new packaging vision for a World Without Waste, which the Coca-Cola system intends to back with a multi-year investment that includes ongoing work to make packaging 100 percent recyclable.
This begins with the understanding that food and beverage containers are an important part of people’s modern lives but that there is much more to be done to reduce packaging waste globally.
“The world has a packaging problem and, like all companies, we have a responsibility to help solve it,” said Coca-Cola Company chief executive James Quincey.
“Through our World Without Waste vision, we are investing in our planet and our packaging to help make this problem a thing of the past.”
The company and its bottling partners are pursuing several key goals. By 2030, for every bottle or can the Coca-Cola system sells globally, the company aim to help take one back so it has more than one life.
To achieve its collection goal, The Coca-Cola Company is continuing to work toward making all of its packaging 100 percent recyclable globally. The company is building better bottles, whether through more recycled content, by developing plant-based resins, or by reducing the amount of plastic in each container.
By 2030, the Coca-Cola system also aims to make bottles with an average of 50 percent recycled content. The goal is to set a new global standard for beverage packaging and currently, the majority of the Company’s packaging is recyclable.
The Coca-Cola Company will work to achieve these goals with the help of several global partners: the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative, The Ocean Conservancy/Trash Free Seas Alliance and World Wildlife Fund (The Cascading Materials Vision and Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance).
Coca-Cola will also launch efforts with new partners at the regional and local level and plans to work with its key customers to help motivate consumers to recycle more packaging.
These efforts are part of the company’s larger strategy to grow with conscience, by becoming a total beverage company that grows the right way.
Coca-Cola Southern and East Africa president Kelvin Balogun said, “The company has already taken great strides in reducing, reusing and recycling our packaging. We have worked closely with our bottling partners, local and national authorities, and recycling partners to improve the collection and local recycling rate of our cans, plastics and glass bottles”.
Coca-Cola has reduced its dependence on fossil fuels by introducing the Plant Bottle packaging in 2012. It is the first fully recyclable PET plastic bottle made with up to 30 percent plant-based materials.
The company’s system with partners, has invested in two bottle-to-bottle recycling facilities at Extrupet and MPact, to create recycled PET for use in the beverage industry. 45 000 tonnes of PET bottles are diverted from landfills each year for reuse in the beverage industry.
An estimated 288 000m3 of landfill spaced has been saved and 82 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions is reduced each year.
