Coca-Cola Begins Global Launch of PlantBottle

The Coca-Cola Co. announced that beverages in its PlantBottle packaging are arriving on store shelves in select markets throughout the world. The product is part of the company’s initiative toward producing 2 billion of the special PET plastic bottles by the end of next year.

PlantBottle PET plastic bottles are made partially from plants, reducing Coca-Cola’s dependence on petroleum. Other benefits of the bottle are that it is 100 percent 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 for 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 2L 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 starting in December and for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
Further, starting this coming January, select markets in the Western United States will have PlantBottle packaging for DASANI. Future launches are being planned in other markets, including Brazil, Japan and Mexico and for China's Shanghai Expo in 2010.

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.

While the bio-based component can account for up to 30 percent of the resulting PET plastic in PlantBottle packaging, the percentage varies for bottles that also contain recycled PET. The combined plant-based and recycled content makes up 65 percent of the material, with 50 percent coming from recycled material and 15 percent from plant-based material.

For the PlantBottle packaging in the United States and Canada, up to 30 percent of the content in the PET plastic comes from plants.