Coca-Cola has set a goal to collect and recycle every bottle or can it sells by 2030.
The company announced the new packaging commitment as part of its ‘World Without Waste’ campaign which looks to make all its packaging 100% recyclable.
Coca-Cola will also collect packaging products from other companies for recycling.
The company will also work with the customers, consumers, local communities and industry partners to deal with issues such as packaging litter and marine debris.
Coca-Cola, which uses 120 billion bottles per year for its beverage products, plans to have more recycled content in packaging and is already involved in the development of plant-based resins which will help in reducing the use of plastics.
The company claimed that in the US, about 99% of its packages are recyclable including caps, 30% of its plastic bottles partially use renewable, plant-based material known as PlantBottle.
PlantBottle packaging uses ingredient from natural sugar for making PET plastic instead of fossil fuels used in traditional PET.
Focusing more on beverage packaging, the firm is planning to make bottles with an average of 50% recycled content by 2030.
Coca-Cola is taking the support of various organizations such as Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative, The Ocean Conservancy/Trash Free Seas Alliance and World Wildlife Fund to achieve its goals.
Coca-Cola president and CEO James Quincey said: “The world has a packaging problem – and, like all companies, we have a responsibility to help solve it.
“Through our World Without Waste vision, we are investing in our planet and our packaging to help make this problem a thing of the past.”
“Companies like ours must be leaders. Consumers around the world care about our planet, and they want and expect companies to take action. That’s exactly what we’re going to do, and we invite others to join us on this critical journey.”
Greenpeace, however, has criticized Coca Cola’s new global plastics plan for failing to address the urgency of ocean plastic pollution.
The non-governmental environmental organization alleged that the plan failed to include any reduction strategy to reduce its increasing use of single-use plastic bottles globally.
Greenpeace UK Oceans Campaigner Tisha Brown said: “The massive increase in plastic waste in our oceans, and increasingly in our food chain, is a result of our dependency on throwaway items like single-use plastic bottles.
“Support for recycling is important but it won’t solve the ocean plastic problem. Coke need to follow the lead of companies like Iceland and massively reduce the amount of plastic they are using, and on that front this plan has fallen flat.
Greenpeace, however, welcomed the announcement that Coca-Cola will be increasing the recycled content in its single-use plastic bottles from the ‘current paltry 7% to 50% globally by 2030’.
