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Coca-Cola and Dasani debut PlantBottle
The Coca-Cola Company has announced that beverages in its innovative PlantBottle packaging are beginning to arrive on store shelves in select markets around the world, initiating the company’s journey towards a goal of producing two billion of the special PET plastic bottles by the end of 2010.
PlantBottle PET plastic bottles are made partially from plants, which reduces the company’s dependence on a non-renewable resource: petroleum. Other benefits are that it’s 100% recyclable, and preliminary research indicates that from the growing of the plant materials through to the production of the resin, the carbon footprint for the PlantBottle packaging is smaller than for bottles made with traditional PET.
“Today, we are taking a major step along our sustainable packaging journey as The Coca-Cola Company becomes the first to market with a recyclable PET plastic bottle made partially from plants,” said Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company. “From Coke brands in Copenhagen to Dasani water in the western United States, we are starting to roll out the first generation of the bottle of the future.”
Throughout Denmark, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Light and Coca-Cola Zero in 500ml and 2-litre sizes are now available in the PlantBottle packaging. A variety of products, including Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fresca and Dasani, will be in western Canada in the PlantBottle beginning in December, and for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
For select markets in the western US – including Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles – PlantBottle packaging will be used for sparkling brands and Dasani in several sizes, starting in January. Future launches are being planned in other markets, including Brazil, Japan and Mexico, and for China’s Shanghai Expo in 2010.
“The PlantBottle is precisely the kind of innovation that demonstrates how businesses can help address climate change and reduce stress on our precious natural resources,” said Kate Krebs, director of sustainable resources for The Climate Group. “While Coca-Cola is just beginning to bring its plant-based PET plastic into the mix, this is a revolutionary solution that has the potential for long-term, meaningful benefits.”
PlantBottle packaging is currently made through a process that turns sugar cane and molasses, a by-product of sugar production, into a key component for PET plastic. The sugar cane being used comes from predominantly rain-fed crops that were processed into ethanol, not refined sugar. Ultimately, the company’s goal is to use non-food, plant-based waste, such as wood chips or wheat stalks, to produce recyclable PET plastic bottles.
“Coca-Cola is currently sourcing raw materials for its PlantBottle from suppliers in Brazil, where third parties have verified that best-in-class agricultural practices are the norm,” said Dr Jason Clay, senior vice president of market transformation for WWF. “Preserving natural resources through sustainable agriculture is essential for businesses like Coca-Cola as they search for ways to alleviate environmental challenges.”
While the bio-based component can account for up to 30% of the resulting PET plastic in PlantBottle packaging, the percentage varies for bottles that also contain recycled PET. For example, Denmark uses recycled content in its PlantBottle packaging. The combined plant-based and recycled content makes up 65% of the material, with 50% coming from recycled material and 15% from plant-based material.
For the PlantBottle packaging in the US and Canada, up to 30% of the content in the PET plastic comes from plants.
“While the PlantBottle introduction and market launch put The Coca-Cola Company on the forefront of bio-based packaging innovation, we are continuing to strive to make an even better bottle,” said Scott Vitters, director of sustainable packaging, The Coca-Cola Company. “Our vision is to continue innovating to achieve a bottle that is made with 100% plant-waste material while remaining completely recyclable.”
Source: The Coca-Cola Company
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Your comments (2)
Bill said on 18 Nov, 2009:
One of the discussions at last week’s Global Bottled Water Congress was around best practice in sustainability. FoodBev has to remain impartial, but I’m happy to share that there was partial consensus on PLA and plant material in bottles being a distraction, and possibly even damaging the wider opportunity to recover and recycle materials.
Some suggested that the plant route was literal ‘greenwash’ and that the industry should instead concentrate its efforts in aiming to recover and recycle as much PET as possible. This would do more to take the pressure off the creation of virgin PET.
All over the world, many companies (including TCCC and its bottlers) are active in collection schemes and working closely with organisations such as United Resource Recovery Corp. Take a look at the achievements so far at Spartanburg, or look at what has been achieved with PET2PET in Austria.
I’d like to see this debate broadened. For instance, I’m worried that consumers will begin to ask too many questions when they see the phrase “where suitable facilities exist” every time PLA is used, and I was intrigued to hear the point of view last week that lightweighting may actually be less ‘green’ than we think, as it requires a higher proportion of virgin PET.
So all in all, I agree. Creating a true closed loop is by far the best thing to aim for. At the same time, I applaud each and every action that takes the responsibility forward.
PAKsmart said on 17 Nov, 2009:
Radical or incremental innovation; personally I’m in favour of obsolescing the competition in one swift move. Rather than a prolongation of slow, incremental advancements that can be misinterpreted as a strategy to buy time for an incomplete solution, why not invoke the wow factor?
What’s at stake here? The food & beverage global market has been estimated at US$1,180bn by 2010 as per RNCOS. Tetra Pak talks about an all-time global consumption high of 258 billion litres of milk and other liquid dairy products in 2008 alone. Couple these statistics with the pressure being exerted from sustainable packaging moments, environmental awareness groups, not to mention concerned consumers all clamouring for a ‘green’ package, and the business case is made.
Consumers want to drink on-the-go. They want diversity in taste, volume and shape. Brand owners demand product differentiation through packaging, so the package/container isn’t going to disappear. Take responsibility for post-consumer waste and collect the ‘empties’. What is waste in one person’s mind is gold in another’s. The secret is to parlay that waste into gold – headhunt your alchemist.
Coca-Cola is the icon of beverage packaging. In fact, the bottle can survive the brand smash test (the broken pieces are recognised as a Coca-Cola bottle). Build on this phenomenon and deliver to the market the ‘green’ Coca-Cola bottle. Be bold enough to account for every circulated Coca-Cola bottle, does that sound impressive or impossible? It’s radical for sure but not impossible – again it’s nothing a closed loop recycling system can’t handle.
Immortalise Coca-Cola and deliver the green solution in one swift move rather than agonise over incremental improvements, as is the case with the PlantBottle.
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