Ringing for changes: Coors Light swaps plastic for cardboard carriers on multipack beers
01 Mar 2022 --- Coors Light is announcing today it will eliminate plastic rings from its multipacks globally, reportedly making it the largest beer brand in North America to move away from the secondary plastic packaging.
Molson Coors Beverage Company will invest US$85 million to support the transition, enabling Coors Light to swap to fully recyclable and sustainably sourced cardboard-wrap carriers later this year.
The investment will be used to upgrade packaging machinery, which will also allow the company’s entire North American brands portfolio to advance to cardboard wrap carriers by the end of 2025. In total, the move is expected to save 1.7 million pounds of plastic waste annually.
“We’re all aware of the impact plastic rings and single-use plastic have. We want to be the change we see in the world – so that means looking at our own processes and deciding what we can do to make a meaningful difference,” a Coors Light spokesperson tells PackagingInsights.
Coors Light will debut the new packaging at the “Plastic-Free Future Mart by Coors Light,” a “super” environmentally sustainable pop-up concept store in NYC, US, this week.
Today’s announcement pushes Molson Coors closer to its goal of ensuring its packaging is 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable.Setting circular standards
Molson Coors announced ambitious environmental sustainability goals in 2017 to reshape the company and set new standards for the beer and beverage industries. The three main areas of focus are water, climate and packaging.
Today’s announcement pushes Molson Coors closer to its goal of ensuring its packaging is 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable, and its consumer-facing plastic packaging is made from at least 30% recycled content by the end of 2025.
“We believe that buying beer shouldn’t mean buying plastic,” says Marcelo Pascoa, vice president of marketing at the Coors Family of Brands.
“That’s why we’re taking a step toward making packaging even more [environmentally] sustainable, and with this achievement Coors Light will save 400,000 pounds of single-use plastic from becoming waste every year.”
Spotlight on plastic
According to a new report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), less than 10% of the plastic used worldwide is recycled. The OECD has called for “coordinated and global solutions” ahead of global plastics treaty discussions at UNEA 5.2 this week.
According to the OECD, less than 10% of the plastic used worldwide is recycled.“As a company with consumer packaging, we have a responsibility to help solve the global plastics crisis,” says the Coors Light spokesperson.
Molson Coors has set the following packaging goals for its organization (2016-2025):
- Ensure packaging is 100% reusable, recyclable or compostable, and consumer-facing plastic packaging is made from at least 30% recycled content.
- Achieve zero waste to landfill at 100% of its operations.
“We’re exploring and applying innovations across our value chain to make sure we mitigate the footprint of our products. We are exploring new and more [environmentally] sustainable pack types, from testing fiber-based six-pack rings for our Colorado Native and Creemore Springs craft brands to this new Coors Light cardboard wrap carrier, which will be launched later this year,” the spokesperson continues.
“We also know that packaging makes up a large piece of our carbon footprint. To target this, we are working collaboratively with our packaging suppliers to design packaging with less emissions and also working upstream to reduce emissions in their own operations.”
By Natalie Schwertheim
