The new 13.2 ounce recyclable bottle that some customers will see on the shelves this week is made entirely of other plastics, and is the latest move in Coca-Cola’s multi-year initiative to reduce its plastic waste. Coca-Cola also hopes that the size will attract younger drinkers, under the age of 25, who are looking for sustainable packaging (and sometimes even avoid the company).
The new bottle will be available starting this month in select states across the Northeast, including New York and Connecticut, as well as California and Florida, before launching nationwide this summer. Coca describes the size as a “tastier package” and will debut with the company’s most popular soft drinks, such as Coca-Cola, Diet Coke and Coke Zero Sugar at a suggested retail price of $ 1.59.
“We have been listening to consumers and they have told us that they want something a little smaller and a little easier to consume,” said Alpa Sutaria, general manager of sustainability at Coca-Cola to CNN Business. “We took the opportunity to make a bottle with 100% recyclable plastic”.
The 13.2-ounce size is slightly larger than your aluminum can option and smaller than the typical 20-ounce bottle. Exclusive sizes, like the 7.5 ounce mini, may have had strong sales.
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Meanwhile, the recycled plastic material will also be presented in 20-ounce bottles of Coca and Diet Coke in New York, California and Texas this month, as well as the company’s Dasani and Smartwater brands in select locations in the coming months.
Sutaria said that developing the new packaging was a “labor of love and great innovation” for Coca-Cola. The recycled plastic is cleaned, crushed and made into grain-like flakes before being transformed into a new bottle.
She added that launch states were chosen because customers in these areas “are more sensitive to the challenges we have around sustainability issues”.
Coca-Cola is often criticized for contributing to environmentally harmful plastic waste. Last year, the company was named the world’s No. 1 plastic polluter by the environmental company Break Free From Plastic. Their logos and brands were found on 13,834 pieces of plastic in 51 countries, often discarded in public spaces such as parks and beaches.
In 2018, Coca announced its “World Without Waste” initiative with the ultimate goal of, by 2030, collecting and recycling a bottle or can for each one it sells. The new bottle, according to Sutaria, is a “big step in that direction”.
“We are determined to innovate and develop technology to minimize our impact,” she said, adding that the company is “following our commitment to real action”.
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Coca-Cola is not the only multinational conglomerate with the aim of reducing its pollution by plastics. Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, announced last year that it is spending $ 2 billion on similar initiatives. Pepsi recently launched a redesigned 2-liter bottle that uses 24% less material.
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