Coca-Cola debuts eco-friendly PlantBottle

The company expects to convert all of their bottles to fully recyclable PET plastic by 2020
2155
Coke
Photograph courtesy of the Coca Cola Company

So distinctive it can be recognized by touch, the Coca-Cola bottle was originally crafted from glass dyed “Georgia Green.” It just got greener: At the World Expo in Milan this June, Coke debuted its first 100 percent plant-based PET plastic bottle.

Unlike PET plastic made from petroleum, Coke’s new PlantBottle technology converts Brazilian sugar cane into fully recyclable PET plastic. The company’s early PlantBottle packaging, introduced in 2009, contained up to 30 percent plant-based material. Next, Coke plans to test plant stems, fruit peels, and bark as packaging sources. Might we suggest peach peels?

2020
Year by which the company plans to convert 100 percent of PET plastic bottles to PlantBottle packaging.

40
Number of countries—from Peru to Moldova—where Coke has distributed more than 35 billion bottles of its original PlantBottle packaging.

743,000
Barrels of oil you would have to burn to produce the 315,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions that Coke claims its PlantBottle technology has eliminated.

4
Number of companies in the Plant PET Technology Collaborative. Coke has licensed PlantBottle technology to Ford, Heinz, Nike, and Procter & Gamble.

30%
of Coke products in North America are packaged in PlantBottles; 7 percent globally. That’s some 6 billion bottles annually.

This article originally appeared in our August 2015 issue.

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