Coca-Cola to pilot 100% plant-based bottle

Coca-Cola is making further forays into sustainability by piloting a new drinks bottle made from 100% plant-based plastics in a bid to help reduce plastic waste.

Based on a different prototype, first unveiled in 2015, everything on the bottle, aside from the label and cap, has been made using new plastic technologies that are reportedly ready for commercial use, including the ability to recycle bottle-to-bottle.

This comes a little over a decade since the company debuted its "PlantBottle" made from 30% plant-based plastic (bPET).

The company has looked to tackle the issue of plastic recycling in the past. In 2020, it revealed it would be eliminating virgin-oil plastics from production at various European plants as part of a wider goal of removing them from their entire production in Japan and Europe.

Read more: Coca-Cola takes two more steps towards 100% recycled plastics in Europe

Back in 2019, it also revealed a partnership with Ioniqa Technologies, Indorama Ventures and Mares Circulares (Circular Seas) to produce bottles made from recovered marine plastic.

More than 900 sample prototypes of the new bPET bottle have been manufactured for a trial run.

“We have been working with technology partners for many years to develop the right technologies to create a bottle with 100% plant-based content—aiming for the lowest possible carbon footprint—and it’s exciting that we have reached a point where these technologies exist and can be scaled by participants in the value chain,” said Nancy Quan, Chief Technical and Innovation Officer at Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola is currently one of the world's most famous consumer goods brands, and has long been associated with plastic pollution. The company was ranked the world's top plastic polluter three years' running in 2020.

Reports in May hinted only around 20 companies - a mix of both state-owned and private firms - contribute to more than 55% of all plastic waste globally.

PET is currently the world's most recycled plastic and consists of two molecules: monoethylene glycol (MEG) and 70% terephthalic acid (PTA).

The PTA in the company's original PlantBottle was, like most single-use plastics, sourced from fossil fuels. Instead, through a partnership with US-based chemicals company Virent, Coca-Cola will be creating a sustainable form of PTA from plant-based paraxylene - itself made from sugar derived from corn.

Read more: All Tomorrow’s Plastics: Data reveals which firms are innovating in bioplastics

The second major breakthrough for the firm allows for flexibility in its feedstock, increasing the types of renewable materials that can be used in bottle production. The process is also made simpler by removing the need for a source of bioethanol as an intermediate.

“Our goal is to develop sustainable solutions for the entire industry", said Dana Breed, the Global R&D Director for Packaging and Sustainability at Coca-Cola. “We want other companies to join us and move forward, collectively".

"We don’t see renewable or recycled content as areas where we want a competitive advantage", she added.

Since unveiling the original PlantBottle, the company has also allowed other consumer goods companies, such as Heinz, to use the technology developed in their own brands.

In 2018, the PlantBottle IP was made more open in a bid to drive down pricing.

All of this comes as part of Coca-Cola's goals to collect back equivalent plastic waste for every bottle it sells by 2030 alongside schemes to make its drinks bottles 100% recyclable.

Investment in new recycling technologies also forms a goal of having its bottles produced from 50% recycled plastic waste within the same time frame.

Read more: PET hates: rethinking the demonisation of plastics

It has also pledged to reduce virgin plastic use by 20% by 2025.

“We are taking significant steps to reduce use of ‘virgin’, oil-based plastic, as we work toward a circular economy and in support of a shared ambition of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050,” Quan added. “We see plant-based plastics as playing a critical role in our overall PET mix in the future, supporting our objectives to reduce our carbon footprint, reduce our reliance on ‘virgin’ fossil fuels and boost collection of PET in support of a circular economy.”

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