The Coca-Cola Company has introduced the first batch of plastic bottles made from recovered and recycled marine plastics.
In partnership with Ioniqa Technologies, Indorama Ventures and Mares Circulares (Circular Seas), about 300 sample bottles were developed using 25% recycled marine plastic retrieved from the Mediterranean Sea and beaches.
Enhanced Recycling Technologies
The bottles were designed and developed to highlight the potential of enhanced recycling technologies to transform used plastics of any quality to a high-quality version that can be used for food or beverage packaging.
Enhanced recycling technologies use innovative processes that break down the components of plastic and strip out impurities in lower-grade recyclables, often destined for incineration or landfill.
Also, more materials are available to make recycled content, reducing the amount of virgin PET needed from fossil fuels and resulting in a lower carbon footprint for the company.
In the short-term, enhanced recycling will be introduced at commercial scale using the waste from existing recyclers, including previously unrecyclable plastics and lower-quality recyclables.
From 2020, Coca-Cola plans to roll out this enhanced recycled content in some of its bottles.
Mares Circulares Project
The plastics used in making the new bottles were collected and recovered by volunteers who participated in 84 beach cleanups in Spain and Portugal and fishermen in 12 ports across the Mediterranean Sea, as part of the Mares Circulares project.
The marine litter collected through Mares Circulares was recycled by Ioniqa Technologies to form the building blocks needed to make food-grade PET.
PET plastic and packaging solutions supplier Indorama Ventures subsequently converted this material into the PET plastic.
As part of the World Without Waste initiative, Coca-Cola is aiming to collect a bottle or can for each one it sells by 2030.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
