The Coca-Cola Company (Atlanta / USA; www.thecoca-colacompany.com) plans to use its sugar-based ethanol “PlantBottle” packaging in every PET bottle it sells by 2020. The technology – for more details, see Plasteurope.com of 27.11.2009 – was expected to be used for 2.5 bn bottles in 2010 in markets across Europe, the Americas and the Pacific. In its latest sustainability report, the company says it is investing heavily in PlantBottle because of its environmental and supply chain benefits. PET bottles currently account for 59% of Coca-Cola’s packaging and it is working to completely eliminate the use of non-renewable fossil fuels in its plastic bottles, while maintaining quality and recyclability. Initially, the company has been introducing the PlantBottle material at a level of up to 30% in bottles also containing up to 50% recycled PET.

Coca-Cola made do without some 85,000 t of primary packaging in 2009, saving roughly USD 100m (EUR 73m) in costs. These savings are the result of lightweighting, greater use of recycled materials and the continuing roll-out of short-height bottle closures that reduce PET usage. In 2009 the company’s systems supported the direct recovery of 36% of the bottles and cans it placed on the market. Currently, some 85% of Coca-Cola’s bottles and cans are recyclable and the company has set a recovery target of 50% by 2015. The PET recovery programme is supported by six bottle-to-bottle recycling plants in various locations.

e-Service:
Coca-Cola 2009/2010 Sustainability Report as a PDF document