In the Netherlands, Coca-Cola will switch all locally produced small plastic bottles to 100% rPET from October this year, with larger bottles following in 2021.
The move will eliminate the use of more than 10,000 tonnes of new virgin oil-based plastic, resulting in a 21% reduction in the carbon footprint of plastic bottles a year (compared to the existing portfolio which uses around 50% rPET).
Locally produced packaging
In the Netherlands, the switch does not apply to Coca-Cola/Fanta Orange 250ml, Aquarius/Minute Maid 330ml, Sprite 375ml: which are all produced in France/Belgium. These products represent around 3% of sales.
In Norway, it does not apply to Fuze Tea & Powerade – around 1.4% of sales.
In Norway, Coca-Cola will transition to 100% rPET bottles for all locally-produced plastic bottles in the first half of next year.
This will remove around 4,300 tonnes of new plastic a year, resulting in a 28% reduction of the carbon footprint from plastic bottles (compared to the existing portfolio with around 25% rPET).
Coca-Cola says it is the first company in each of these markets to move its entire portfolio of locally produced plastic bottles to 100% rPET.
In setting its goal to eliminate new virgin oil-based PET in all bottles within the next decade, the company believes it can remove more than 200,000 tonnes of virgin PET from its packaging portfolio in Western Europe.
Markets such as the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have high collection rates for plastic bottles. Coca-Cola says a key part of its switch to 100% rPET is the Deposit Return Schemes available in these countries: boosting PET collection rates and increasing the quality of PET material collected by reducing contamination from other materials.
“Supported by innovation in recycling technologies, Deposit Return Schemes have enabled the production of high quality rPET resin in both Dutch and Norwegian markets, thus accelerating the transition to local circular economies for PET in these countries,” said a spokesperson.
“In keeping with its commitment to build local circular economies for beverage packaging, Coca-Cola’s 100% rPET bottles produced in each market will be fully recyclable, so they can be used again as raw material for new bottles.”
Coca-Cola’s announcement today sees Norway and the Netherlands follow in the footsteps of Sweden, where Coca-Cola is already transitioning to 100% rPET (as announced in December 2019).