Bloomberg Businessweek February 15, 2021 pp16 “Things Go Better With Recycled Plastic” “Coca-Cola’s shift to sustainable bottles will drop its use of new plastic in the U.S. by 20%” “THE BOTTOM LINE Coca-Cola says it will shift to bottles made of 100% recycled plastic in the U.S., saying its previous goal to use plant-based containers still produced too much virgin plastic.”
New 100% Recycled PET will be 13.2 Oz, sell for $1.59 and Sprite(TM) bottles will be all clear to improve on recycling. The company hopes to reduce new plastic by more than half. Image from USATODAY.COM
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Summary of Article
According to experts Coca-Cola’s “products are responsible for more plastic pollution than any other…to address the global problem of plastic waste…[Coca-Cola will now have] bottles made of 100% recycled plastic for many of the drinks it sells in the U.S.” Such an effort will reduce by 20%, in North America, the company’s use of new plastic. The new bottles, made of 100% recycled PET or rPET, will be 13.2 oz selling at $1.59 but 20 oz drinks will remain at $1.99. It is shelving its 2009 plan of using plant-based materials as consumers have a more favorable impression of 100% recycled even though from “an emissions standpoint, bio-based bottles are better than recycled ones as recycled still are derived initially from oil. Having said that “the carbon impact of 100% r-PET is much lower than regular plastic” resulting in the potential to reduce “the carbon footprint in more than half by using 100% recycled.” Cost “isn’t significantly higher.”