Coca-Cola joins Dutch supermarkets in axing needless plastic soft drink handles
24 Aug 2022 --- Dutch supermarkets Albert Heijn and Jumbo, along with Coca-Cola and soft drink supplier Vrumona, have agreed to cease using fortified plastic handles on multi-packaged drinks. The move is in line with the Dutch Plastics Pact and is expected to save roughly 40,000 kilos of plastics annually.
The handles - also called carrying loops or handy lifts, are typically used on multipacks of four or six large soft drinks bottles. They may be convenient for consumers but are disadvantageous for recyclability as the reinforced plastic is a different material than the rest of the packaging.
Niels van Marle of the Netherlands’ Knowledge Institute Sustainable Packaging (KIDV) remarks: “Omitting the handle improves the recyclability of bundle packaging. The outer packaging itself is made of the flexible plastic material LDPE and the handles of the material PET.”
“If you as a consumer dispose of this outer packaging in one go, without separating the handles from the outer packaging, the two different materials end up together in the recycle stream.”
“We go further without the handle.”“This can hinder recycling because PET has very different recycling properties than LDPE, such as a different melting temperature. Therefore, the new packaging without a handle also comes out better in the KIDV’s recycle check than the one with a handle. In addition, omitting the handles naturally saves material.”
Consumer experiences
The move was led by the Dutch group Meer Met Minder Plastic (More With Less Plastic), which has established the Dutch Plastic Pact goals. Companies joining the pact must agree to aim for the following by 2025: all plastic packaging to be recyclable or reusable; 20% less plastic for disposable products; 70% of single-use plastic items be recycled in a “high-quality manner”; and all plastic packaging must contain at least 30% recycled content.
The group says that experience shows consumers can still grip the packaging well when opening the packaging on the side and that the additional handle is unnecessary.
Packaging without the handles will be rolled out in supermarkets in the Netherlands in the coming months. This differs per supplier and brand.
Martijn van Rijn, of the Dutch Plastic Pac, remarks: “The adaptation of this packaging is another step toward more sustainable plastic packaging. Because these companies work together, a lot of impacts is made at once and this fits well with the realization of the goals of the Plastic Pact NL.”
Edited
By Louis Gore-Langton
