Our plan to recover and recycle every single can and bottle the Coca Cola system sell
Learn about our plan to recover and recycle every single can and bottle the Coca Cola system sell.
It's often overlooked, but there are many benefits of using plastic if you make packaged goods. It is light, safe, clean, low carbon and very effective at protecting the quality of products – essential if you make something for human consumption. But there is a downside to plastic too: if it is not disposed of properly after use, it creates litter and can damage the environment.
All of Coca‑Cola European Partners (CCEP) bottles and cans have been 100% recyclable for some time now, but we know they don’t all end up that way. That’s why in 2017 the Coca‑Cola system launched a new strategy to help increase the number that are recycled in Great Britain.
Taking Action
We wanted to see all of our packaging recovered and recycled, so none of it is littered or ends up where it shouldn’t be. It is a bold ambition – there isn’t a country in the world at the moment that gets back 100% of its packaging – but that’s what we are aiming for and hope to achieve through our continued efforts. It also happens to be the kind of action that more and more consumers want to see big brands taking.
These are the two areas we decided to focus on based on the input we received:
- Making our packaging as sustainable as possible and using our advertising to encourage more people to recycle.
- Calling for reform of the UK recycling system and supporting any interventions that increase recovery and recycling rates – including a well-designed deposit return schemes for soft drinks packaging in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
More sustainable packaging
We use at least 25% recycled material in all of our plastic bottles. That’s a figure we're proud of – we already buy and use more recycled plastic than any other food or drink company. To ensure our packaging is as sustainable as possible, we are going to go further and double the amount we use to 50% this year – in every bottle across all 20 of the brands we sell.
Why stop at 50% you might ask? Well, the reality is that at present there just isn’t enough food-grade quality recycled material available in the UK to do that – we cannot buy any more. For that number to go up, two things need to happen: more plastic needs to be recovered and more companies need to commit to use recycled plastic so that reprocessors know there is demand for their output.
We are also going to focus on how we can use our brands and our advertising to encourage more people to recycle. We want to make more people aware that, if you recycle your bottle after you’ve enjoyed it, good things can happen.
A team effort
If we want to reduce litter and get more recycled material into our bottles, we need to look at the current recycling system in this country and find ways to make it easier for more packaging to be recovered and recycled. There’s not one easy fix to achieve this, so we will continue to work in partnership with community groups and with the Government to champion reforms of the recycling system in Great Britain.
This has included giving our support to properly exploring the merits and impacts of a well-designed deposit return scheme. We have experience from around the world of participating in such schemes and how to make them efficient and effective. This has included giving our support to properly exploring the merits and impacts of a well-designed deposit return scheme.
We have experience from around the world of participating in such schemes and how to make them efficient and effective. We welcome the Government’s recent commitment to introduce Deposit Return Schemes in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and will continue to work closely with officials, retailers and the industry to ensure that the scheme is easy to use, while delivering the best outcome for the environment.
In the meantime, we’ve been working with others to trial an on-the-go bottle recovery and reward programme to help understand if a small incentive motivates people to take their bottles back to a location to be recycled.
We believe these actions can help to make a real difference now and in the long term. We dislike litter as much as anyone else and don’t want to see it on our streets, on our beaches or in the sea. We're determined we will do what we can to help prevent it.
Read more about our sustainability initiatives here, or find out about our 100% rPET smartwater bottle here.