Coca-Cola report reveals failures in reusable packaging targets, environmentalists urge investments

02 Sep 2024 --- The Coca-Cola Company reportedly failed to increase its use of reusable packaging for beverage products between 2022 and 2023. Despite pledging to achieve 25% by 2030, the rate has remained at just 14%. Environmental group Oceana says the company has the knowledge and resources to make the needed improvements.

“It’s a matter of will, not how. Coca-Cola has a huge reusable business, infrastructure, and knowledge base. The company sells reusables to customers all over the world — in Germany, Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines and many other markets,” Oceana’s senior vice president of Strategic Initiatives Matt Littlejohn, tells Packaging Insights.

“They know how to do this. Coca-Cola and its bottling partners need to make the infrastructure and marketing investments required to grow, reuse and meet its goal.” 

Coca-Cola’s update comes over two years after it pledged to reach 25% reusable packaging by 2030 and follows last year’s report of a 2% decrease in reuse from 2020 to 2022 (from 16-14%). 

In a statement, a Coca-Cola spokesperson tells us: “We know more must be done, and we can’t achieve our goals alone. Helping create a circular economy for our packaging requires collaboration between industry, the public sector and civil society. We continue to collaborate across industries, explore new collection models or improve existing ones, share learnings, invest in community infrastructure, engage policymakers and partner to innovate.”

Drop in sales 

Earlier this year, most of Coca-Cola’s largest bottlers reported declining beverage sales for reusable packaging. Oceana is now calling on Coca-Cola to disclose a plan for meeting its reuse goal by the 2030 deadline.

“Coca-Cola is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The company’s reuse goal and system are powerful assets for the company. Oceana estimates that if Coca-Cola meets its commitment to reach 25% reusable packaging, the company could avoid producing the equivalent of over 100 billion 500ml single-use plastic bottles and cups. Coca-Cola and its bottlers need to truly embrace reuse and meet this critical objective,” Littlejohn says. 

The company was criticized heavily for pollition at the Olympic Games.Among the company’s failures, its bottling partners have fallen back on reusable packaging progress in recent years. These include: 

• Coca-Cola FEMSA accounted for nearly one-quarter of all reusable sales by Coca-Cola worldwide in 2023 but reported that the reusable share of its total sales declined from 34% in 2021 to 32% in 2023. 
• Arca Continental, which accounted for more than 10% of all reusable sales by Coca-Cola in 2023, reported that its reusable share declined from 26% in 2021 to 22.7% in 2023. 
• Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, which accounted for more than 5% of all reusable sales by Coca-Cola in 2023, reported that its reusable share, excluding recently acquired operations in Egypt, was 13.6% in 2021 and 13.3% in 2023.
• Coca-Cola Europacific Partners — the largest bottler of Coca-Cola products in the world — reported that its share of reusable packaging grew slightly from 10.4% in 2021 to 11.4% in 2023. CCEP has made no public commitment to increase reusable packaging.

Paris Olympics controversy

Coca-Cola’s reported lack of progress follows the company’s issues at the Paris Olympics 2024. For the first time, drinks were served in reusable cups on a large scale at the event.

However, due to reported operational considerations and other decisions made by the company, millions of servings of beverages were poured into these cups from single-use plastic bottles, resulting in widespread criticism of the company and its partners at the Olympic Games.

Bénédicte Kjaer Kahlat, legal officer at Zero Waste France, told us, “The fact that plastic bottles were not directly handed to consumers doesn’t change anything.”

The Coca-Cola Company spokesperson says the event is a learning opportunity, and states: 

“At the Paris 2024 Olympic & Paralympic Games, we are also implementing a refreshed distribution model for our beverages in partnership with the city of Paris and the Paris 2024 Organising Committee.” 

“Where feasible, we are leveraging beverage fountains and returnable glass bottles, serving our drinks into reusable and returnable cups provided and managed by the Paris 2024 Organising Committee. The scale and complexity of the Olympic and Paralympic Games provide a unique opportunity to test and learn about packaging distribution, and we look forward to collecting learnings from Paris 2024.”

By Louis Gore-Langton