The giant in the world of carbonated beverages and soft drinks, Coca-Cola has made a move towards becoming a green company. Coca-Cola’s recent initiative involves processing the same amount of packaging that it puts on the market. Truth is, it will take at least 12 years to fully implement this eco-friendly action plan.
The ambitious statement was made by the company in mid-January this year, to the delight of “green” activists, saying that it wants to completely change its policy regarding the packaging of its products.
From now on, the goal would be to collect and process the same amount of packaging that is released on the market. The plan is to achieve this ambitious goal by the year 2030. Significant investments will be made into a new concept called “A World Without Waste.”
Reducing plastic packaging waste
In fact, the Coca-Cola’s approach is fully equitable and consists of two main factors: the modern world is not possible without the plastic packaging that is used for food and drinks. Thus, the most important is to make the maximum amount of effort to reduce the amount of produced waste.
“The scourge of the modern world is packaging. And this problem did not arise by itself. We, like all other companies, are responsible for solving this problem, “says James Quincy, president and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. “Our concept of “A World Without Waste” is an investment in both our packaging and our planet to help us leave all this plastic madness in the past.”
Investing in our planet
Coca-Cola sees the whole initiative as an investment in our planet’s health as well as our own well-being. Actually, Coca-Cola will collect and process not only its own packaging but also any packaging waste produced by other manufacturers. The origin of cans, bottles and plastic containers makes no difference to the soft beverage giant.
There is also a place for educational activities: the company’s specialists in their social networks talk about the importance of fighting pollution of the oceans and the environment. Thus, Coca-Cola wants to attract the attention of its customers, consumers of products to an ecological catastrophe, towards which we are moving by leaps and bounds.
Bottles made of recycled material
Concerning the practical side of the matter, Coca-Cola will continue to modify its bottles so that they are eventually made from 100% recycled material. Naturally, for this purpose the company will use more components of packaging from secondary raw materials; to develop the use of polymers of vegetable origin, thus reducing the amount of plastic in each of its bottles.
The ambitious goal of Coca-Cola is also to establish a new world standard for packaging beverages. By 2030, the company plans to produce plastic packaging made from recycled materials by 50%. Actually, some Coca-Cola products already have packaging that is made of recycled materials.
“It is important that when we talk about packagings from recycled materials, we mean the caps, labels, as well as the shipping containers in which drinks are sent to stores, this can also be recycled and re-launched to produce bottles”, says one of the company’s representatives.
Setting example
Coca-Cola, in fact, has already made a huge contribution to the development of its project: the same amount of water that was used for the production of beverages was restored. “Bottles and jars should not harm our planet, and a world without waste is possible,” Quincy says. – Global companies like ours should be leaders setting the example. Consumers all over the world care about the planet, and they expect active action from corporations. This is exactly what we are going to do, and we invite everyone to join us, on this difficult and important path.”
Recycling initiatives
The main purpose of collecting and processing plastic will be concentrated on bottles, jars, and caps made of glass, PET plastic or aluminum, which is approximately 85 percent of the packaging, but will also include packages produced by other companies. “We believe that every package – regardless of what it was intended for – has value and life after it was used for its original purpose,” emphasizes Quincy. “If something can be processed, it must be recycled. Therefore, we want people around the world to understand how important this is.”
To help eliminate existing waste, Coca-Cola will continue to work with key partners such as The Ocean Conservancy / Trash Free Seas Alliance, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (New Plastics Economy) – removing waste from the environment.
Since 1995, Coca-Cola has been a leading sponsor of the largest volunteer activities in the world, cleansing coastal areas: International Coastal Cleansing Ocean Conservancy. This partnership has allowed the company to mobilize the efforts of 20 million people to clean up 220 million pounds of waste over 375,000 miles of shoreline.
Thank you for reading our articles, stay informed about the industrial world and Exapro by following us on Exapro Hub, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
