The Coca-Cola Company: DASANI and Sprite Boost Sustainability Packaging Credentials
Project Timeline
Product launch: 2022
The Circular Solution
The Coca-Cola Company has taken major steps to reduce plastic waste and improve the circularity of plastic packaging for its DASANI, Sprite and Fresca brands in Canada and across North America. It is expected that these packaging changes will increase the company’s use of recycled content, drive demand for recycled content, and incentivize the collection of recyclable packaging.
Outcomes
DASANI – The entire DASANI product lineup will be made from recycled plastic (excluding caps and labels). This move is projected to save more than 20 million pounds of new plastic in 2023, which is equivalent to 552 million bottles, compared to 2019. Additionally, every pound of recycled plastic (rPET) material used instead of new PET reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 65%.
Other Brands – Sprite and Fresca have also transitioned their green PET portfolio to clear PET with the goal of increasing the bottles’ recyclability. Since clear PET has higher value in the after-market compared to coloured PET, it makes it easier to recycle and reuse. This move also aligns with The Coca-Cola Company’s World Without Waste initiative, which aims to recover and recycle a bottle for every one sold, and use 50% recycled content in all its packaging by 2030.
Next Steps
The Coca-Cola Company is working to address its entire packaging lifecycle— from how its bottles are designed to how it’s recycled and repurposed through its World Without Waste initiative.
The company is working to make all its packaging more sustainable, including maximizing its use of renewable and recycled content while minimizing its use of virgin material. Its goal is to create closed-loop systems by extracting the maximum value from packaging materials and products while in use, then preventing them from becoming waste through recovery, recycling, and reuse.
