Coca-Cola has announced that it has launched a pilot for refillable, on-the-go drinks solutions in Sweden.
The trial is taking place in Stockholm at the convenience store PBX, Reitan Convenience’s ‘living lab’, in collaboration with GLACIAL.
The concept allows consumers to refill beverage containers and choose from more than 60 flavours, most of which are not available in packaged formats.
Net-Zero Emissions
In 2020, Coca‑Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) launched a group-wide climate strategy with the ambition of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.
The group believes that packaging will play a crucial role in achieving this goal.
For Coca‑Cola, Sweden was the first market in the world to switch to a PET portfolio made with from 100% recycled plastic and its factory in Jordbro was one of the first two within the CCEP Group to be certified as climate neutral according to the PAS 2060 standard.
Lisa Wahlström, sustainability director at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners in Sweden, said, "Our packaging accounts for a majority of our emissions. We therefore need to find innovative solutions so that consumers can continue to enjoy our drinks with the same good quality and taste, while at the same time reducing the amount of packaging. We see great opportunities with refillable solutions and are very happy to be able to test our new concept together with GLACIAL at PBX."
Refilling Containers
Coca-Cola aims to encourage Swedish consumers to refill beverage containers over and over again in order to reduce the carbon footprint from packaging and potential littering.
Consumers at PBX can buy refillable beverage containers from GLACIAL that keep beverages cold for up to 12 hours.
In total, more than 60 flavours are on offer from several brands, such as Coca‑Cola, Fanta, Sprite, FuzeTea and Smartwater.
Consumers can also refill their own beverage container, the company added.
Wahlström added, "What we are launching now could be compared to the beverage industry's response to recycling. We are pleased to collaborate with GLACIAL, which has a strong position in the Swedish market when it comes to reusable beverage containers.
"In addition, we have a joint partner in the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Coca-Cola is the largest partner in the world when it comes to WWF's work to protect the world's freshwater resources and GLACIAL has a combined partnership and licensing agreement with WWF where they donate money for the benefit of the world's oceans."
© 2021 European Supermarket Magazine. Article by Conor Farrelly. For more Packaging news, click here. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
