Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) has today announced it aims to double the amount of recycled plastic in its bottles to 50% by 2020.
As part of a sustainable packing strategy in the UK, CCEP will launch its biggest ever consumer communications campaign to convey the importance of recycling.
To reach its recycling target, the company will extend its partnership with Clean Tech, which operates Europe’s largest bottle reprocessing facility in Lincolnshire.
Coca-Cola also aims use the power of its brands to inspire more consumers to recycle through a multi-million pound communications campaign which it estimates will reach 35 million people by the end of the year. The company will also be putting a new recycling message on bottles this year and promoting recycling to six million people at festivals and events.
There has been growing concern about the impact of plastics pollution in oceans as well as the ever-increasing demand for bottles. The Guardian last month revealed that one million plastic bottles are bought by consumers every minute – around 20,000 a second.
Vice president at CCEP GB Leendert den Hollander claimed that Coca-Cola has shown its commitment to reducing the environmental impact of its packaging by ensuring that its bottles and cans are fully recyclable.
“Our goal is to work with local and national partners to ensure all of our packaging is recovered and recycled,” he said. “Our desire to double the amount of recycled material we use in our plastic bottles sends a clear signal that we want to play a positive role in supporting the circular economy here in Great Britain.
“Our ambition – and our ability to go further in the future – will require reform of the packaging collection system in Great Britain and we will work with others to champion the changes that are required to ensure all our valuable materials are recovered.”
Clean Tech managing director Chris Brown said: “We, as part of Plastipak, are proud to be the largest producer of food-grade recycled PET plastic in Europe and our significant partnership with Coca-Cola actively demonstrates the increasing demand for high quality recycled plastic in the drinks industry.
“We want to provide manufacturers like Coca-Cola with even more of this material, but to do that the first step is to recover more used bottles.”
The announcement is a latest move by CCEP to highlight its commitment to sustainable production. Last month the bottler announced it has started sourcing all of the electricity needed for its UK operations from renewable sources.
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