Coca-Cola to remove 200 tonnes of plastic with new packaging

Coca-Cola today announced two sustainable packaging solutions that further its ambition to achieve a World Without Waste by 2030 and accelerate the sustainability of its packaging.

In an industry-first move, Coca-Cola’s KeelClip cardboard packaging has replaced shrink wrap plastic on all multi-pack cans across all Coca-Cola brands, including Coca-Cola, Cola-Cola Zero Sugar, Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite. The innovative, minimalist paperboard packaging solution will eliminate the use of more than 200 tonnes of shrink wrap plastic across the island of Ireland annually. This new type of packaging not only replaces the plastic wrap, but also minimises the amount of paper/card required.

In addition to this, Coca-Cola has also announced that Sprite has switched its iconic green bottle to a clear bottle, making Sprite bottles easier to recycle. While the Sprite bottles in their original form were 100% recyclable the colour of them made it harder for them to be recycled into a clear bottle through mechanical recycling. The switch from green to clear will significantly increase the value of the bottles when being reused or re-purposed. The bottle refresh is supported by a full marketing campaign run across OOH, social media, and high impact digital display formats across top premium Irish media sites, as well as in-store support.

Another way to make eco improvements is to reuse household food containers and have them filled at a local eco refill store.  Products such as rice, pasta are easy to buy along with non-food items such as shampoo, conditioners and washing up liquid too.  The key to doing this though is to label them properly with silicone squeeze bottle bands. That way, you don’t have dirty stickers that are coming off in the wash.

Speaking at the launch Petre Sandru, Country Manager, Coca-Cola Ireland said: “Despite this unpredictable year, as a system, we have remained focused on achieving our ambition of a World Without Waste. Central to this is our investment in more sustainable packaging design, and ensuring our products are as easy to recycle as possible”.

Earlier this year we announced our plans to introduce KeelClip packaging and we’re delighted to see it now in market. The transition of the iconic green Sprite bottle to a clear bottle is also another move made by us to ensure our packaging is easy to recycle enhancing efforts to keep materials in use for as long as possible.”

Our efforts won’t stop there. We’re continuing to champion greater collection and recycling of our packaging, with an ambition to collect back and recycle 100% of all bottles and cans we sell by 2030″.

Speaking today Coca-Cola HBC Ireland and Northern Ireland general manager Miles Karemacher said: “At Coca-Cola HBC, we are committed to minimising our impact on the environment. We’re delighted to be at the point where our KeelClip packaging is now on all of our multi-pack cans sold across the island of Ireland. This not only helps us to progress our World Without Waste goals, but also makes a significant impact in the market with superb shopper appeal.”

Coca-Cola has a ‘zero waste’ packaging vision, where every element is 100 per cent recyclable. To read more about Coca-Cola’s sustainability vision and commitments in Ireland visit here.

Trending