Leading the pack: Coca-Cola Oceania, Amatil to introduce 100 percent recycled plastic across leading NZ brands this year

01 Aug 2019 --- Coca-Cola Oceania and Coca-Cola Amatil have announced that all plastic bottles smaller than 1-liter and water bottles across all sizes will be made entirely from recycled plastic in New Zealand by the end of the year. These changes would mean that over half of the plastic bottles produced by Coca-Cola Amatil in New Zealand will be made from recycled plastic and include leading brands such as Coca-Cola, Sprite, POWERADE, Fanta, L&P, Kiwi Blue and Pump water.

Managing Director of Coca-Cola Amatil New Zealand, Chris Litchfield, said the increase in the use of recycled plastic in its bottles would dramatically reduce the amount of new plastic it uses in New Zealand.

“Our move to substantially increase the use of recycled plastic means we will avoid using around 2900 tons of new plastic and that’s incredibly positive for our environment. Already all the bottles and cans we make can be recycled and this takes us a step further towards creating a truly circular economy,” Litchfield notes.

New Zealand is one of the first countries to achieve and exceed Coca-Cola’s global sustainable packaging goal to increase the use of recycled plastic, which aims to make all bottles with an average of 50 percent recycled content by 2030.

The commitment also goes beyond the Ministry for the Environment’s Plastic Packaging Declaration as all of Coca-Cola Amatil and Coca-Cola Oceania’s cans, glass and plastic bottles are already recyclable.

“As one of New Zealand’s largest beverage companies, we have a responsibility to be part of the solution to the plastic waste crisis,” Richard Schlasberg, General Manager of Coca-Cola Oceania says. “That is why over half of our plastic bottles will be made entirely from recycled plastic by the end of 2019.”

“This is a big commitment to using more recycled plastic – one of the largest of its kind by a beverage company in New Zealand – and will significantly reduce the impact of our business on the environment,” Schlasberg adds.

The initiative is part of Coca-Cola’s global commitment to a World Without Waste, which aims to collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle or can it sells globally by 2030. Both Coca-Cola Oceania and Coca-Cola Amatil have committed to the Ministry for the Environment’s Plastic Packaging Declaration.

Last September, Coca-Cola Amatil – one of the biggest beverage producers in the Asia Pacific region has launched the SyLon Sports closure, a custom solution for new Powerade bottles. The closure has improved recyclability as all three components are made of the same high-density polyethylene material, creating a cleaner recycling stream. It is an Australian-grown innovation which was designed, tested and prototyped by the Amatil Packaging Services Division in Eastern Creek, Sydney.

Coca-Cola Oceania and Coca-Cola Amatil NZ support several grassroots initiatives to help collect and recycle beverage containers including Sea Cleaners, The Public Place Recycling Scheme and the Band Together anti-litter campaign.

Global sustainability progress
Last week, Coca-Cola announced several recent milestones in its World Without Waste program. The progress includes:

• Bottlers worldwide continue to introduce more brands in 100 percent recycled PET (rPET) packaging. Recent launches include the green tea brand Hajime Ichinichi Ippon in Japan; the Romerquelle and Valser water brands in Austria and Switzerland, respectively; Viva water in the Philippines; and San Luis water in Peru. In Western Europe, 100 percent rPET bottles will be launched for smartwater, Chaudfontaine and Honest by the end of 2019.
• Coca-Cola Amatil and Coca-Cola Australia announced that 70 percent of all PET bottles in the market will be made from 100 percent rPET by the end of 2019.
• Coca-Cola European Partners and Coca-Cola Great Britain announced a switch from green to clear bottles for Sprite in their markets as a way to improve recycling. Other markets are making this change as well.
• Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines, the bottling arm of Coca-Cola in the Philippines, announced that it will lead the investment in a US$19 million state-of-the-art, food-grade recycling facility that will collect, sort, clean and wash post-consumer recyclable plastic bottles and turn them into new bottles using advanced technology. It is Coca-Cola’s first major investment in a recycling facility in Southeast Asia.
• Coca-Cola Vietnam led the launch of an industry-backed packaging recovery organization alongside other companies. The organization will initially focus on increasing recovery and recycling rates for three materials: PET, aluminum and Tetra Pak.

Last month, Coca-Cola announced that its GLACÉAU smartwater bottles will be made from 100 percent rPET by the end of the year in a move that is expected to remove 3,100 tons of virgin plastic from circulation. Coca-Cola in Great Britain also confirmed that it is on track to double the amount of rPET used in all other plastic bottles across its 20 brands to at least 50 percent in early 2020.

Also, Coca-Cola is replacing the current iconic green Sprite bottle with a clear pack to make it easier to recycle back into new drinks bottles. The change, which will come into effect from September this year, is a further sign of the company’s commitment to supporting recycling and the circular economy in this country. Sprite will also increase the amount of rPET in its bottles to 50 percent by next year.

Edited by Joshua Poole