Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) announced Thursday it will test a new plastic bottle in North America that’s partly made from sugar cane and moasses.
Not to miss a branding opportunity, Coke has dubbed it the "plantbottle."
Coke said the new bottle is made from a blend of petroleum-based materials and up to 30% plant-based materials that are by-products of sugar production. The soft-drink maker also said the bottle has a lower reliance on a non-renewable resource, reducing carbon emissions by up to 25%, compared with other petroleum-based PET plastic bottles.
“The Coca-Cola Company is a company with the power to transform the marketplace,” said Carter Roberts, President and CEO of World Wildlife Fund, U.S. “We are pleased to be working with Coke to tackle sustainability issues and drive innovations like this through their supply chain, the broader industry and the world.”
Coke plans to test the new bottle with its Dasani bottled water brand this year and then expand to some of its carbonated brands and Vitaminwater.
The bottled water industry has received harsh criticism in recent years for needlessly creating vast amounts of plastic waste. National Geographic estimates that over 85 million plastic bottles are used every three minutes.
Coke said the new bottle is fully recyclable and can be processed through existing manufacturing and recycling facilities.
Other plant-based plastics, such as PLA, are meant to be commercially composted. If they are mixed with traditional PET, they can contaminate the recycled material, making it unusable.
Scott Vitters, Director of Sustainable Packaging of The Coca-Cola Company. “This innovation is a real win because it moves us closer to our vision of zero waste with a material that lessens our carbon footprint and is also recyclable.”
Earlier this year, the Company opened the world’s largest plastic bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in Spartanburg, S.C. The plant will produce approximately 100 million pounds of recycled PET plastic for reuse each year
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