Coca-Cola puts the batteries and launches its first recycled plastic bottle of marine litter

Coca-Cola has presented this October 3 its first bottle in the world made of recycled plastic from marine litter collected in 'Circular Seas', the coastal and seabed cleaning project that has been launched in Spain and Portugal.Thanks to the joint work carried out by Ioniqa Technologies, Indorama Ventures, the 'Circular Seas' and Coca-Cola project, around 300 bottles have been manufactured using 25% recycled plastic, from beaches and seabed in Spain and Portugal.

Coca-Cola puts the batteries and launches its first recycled plastic bottle of marine litter
The company points out that these bottles are an example of innovative and revolutionary recycling techniques that have made it possible to convert a highly degraded PET plastic into high quality raw material.

They are, therefore, the first bottles in the world made of material from marine plastic and suitable for use in food and beverages.

The announcement of this technological advance was made this Thursday in London during a day in which Coca-Cola has announced new packaging targets for Western Europe.Thus, the company recalls that, in 2017, it launched 'We are advancing', its sustainability strategy for Western Europe that has as its main objective, by 2025, to collect and recycle the equivalent of 100% of the bottles or cans that it sells, so as that all their containers are 100% recyclable and ensure that their plastic bottles contain at least 50% recycled PET.Currently, Coca-Cola has updated its objectives in the field of sustainable packaging in Western Europe, including the elimination of unnecessary or difficult to recycle plastic from its portfolio, through the lightening of packaging and the elimination of secondary plastic packaging, which It will mean the elimination of more than 11,000 tons of plastic per year in Western Europe (2,600 of them in the Iberian division, as of 2020).

In addition, Coca-Cola will eliminate this autumn the plastic that currently covers the packs of 200 ml cans or mini-can, replacing it with cardboard with PEFC certificate, the most widely used forest certification system worldwide that ensures forest sustainability.This measure involves the elimination, as of 2020, of 1,380 tons of plastic in its supply chain in Iberia.

It also plans to ensure that all its plastic bottles are made of 100% recycled material or from renewable raw materials, avoiding the use of more than 200,000 tons of virgin plastic per year in Western Europe (20,000 in the Iberian market).

In addition, Coca-Cola in Iberia advances its objective that all its plastic bottles are manufactured with 50% recycled PET in 2022, three years ahead of schedule.

The third objective seeks to make public the carbon footprint of all its containers on an annual basis, as well as to inform the performance regarding its commitments and objectives in a transparent manner.

"The objectives we have and those we have set today are ambitious, and so it should be. The containers have a valuable function, but they must always be collected, recycled and reused. Our goal, working hand in hand with our collaborators, is to make the term 'single-use plastic' becomes obsolete, getting all our plastic and, therefore, our packaging respond to the principles of the circular economy, "said the president of The Coca-Cola Company in Western Europe, Tim Brett

For his part, the technical and supply chain director of The Coca-Cola in Western Europe, Bruno van Gompel, has assured that "this bottle is a clear example of what can be achieved, through partnership and investment in innovative and revolutionary technologies ".

"By bringing together partners throughout our supply chain, from the collaboration of local cleaning entities and NGOs in Spain and Portugal to an investment in technological innovation in the Netherlands, we have been able, for the first time, to convert very degraded marine plastic in raw material to make new bottles, "he added.