Reuse
We are helping to close the recycling loop with two PET bottle-to-bottle recycling plants located in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Essex, Great Britain. These plants will help provide the dependable and cost-effective stream of food-grade recycled PET that we need. These plants will allow us to close the recycling loop by purchasing recycled material locally and incorporating it into new bottles.
Recycled aluminum accounts for more than half of the content of our cans, while our glass bottles contain up to 45 percent recycled content. However our PET bottles contain an average of just four percent of post-consumer recycled content. We are addressing the issues of quality, cost and reliability that have made it difficult to use larger amounts of recycled PET, and are working to increase the amount of post-consumer recycled material in our packaging. As an alternative, the Coca-Cola system has unveiled a new packaging innovation – a plastic bottle that is made partially from plants. The “PlantBottle™” is fully recyclable, requires less petroleum, a non-renewable resource, and reduces carbon emissions. The PlantBottle is being piloted with DASANI and Coca-Cola in select North American markets. In 2010, we are exploring the possibility of using the PlantBottle for our vitaminwater and smartwater products.