A significant portion of Coca-Cola’s packaging is designed to be recycled, and the company’s strategic goal is to collect and sell enough of each bottle by 2030.
Coca-Cola’s bottling partners in South Africa, Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA) and Coca-Cola Peninsula Beverages (CCPB), will conduct a regional cleanup in September.
World Cleanup Day 2022
The month of September is crucial in addressing the global waste problem.
September 17 2022 marks World Cleanup Day and South Africa’s Clean Up and Recycle Week runs from 12 to 17 September.
These initiatives bring together millions of volunteers and organizations in South Africa and around the world to tackle the global packaging problem and create a sustainable and environmentally friendly planet.
Coca-Cola recognizes that the country has a packaging problem and through Jami’s sustainability platform, Coca-Cola is addressing social and environmental issues around water, waste and resources on the continent.
“As Coca-Cola in South Africa, a central focus of our business is the sustainability of the environment and communities in which we operate,” said Babongile Mandela, director of public affairs, communications and sustainability at Coca-Cola Africa.
“We are moving to reduce, reuse and recycle the packaging we produce, to create a circular economy where the packaging produced does not end up in the environment, but is part of a value chain where ‘waste’ can be recycled. The valuable materials used to produce more packaging or When this was not possible, they were used to produce other materials such as furniture or building materials,” Mandela explained.
#World without trash vision
Like Jammy’s waste pillar, Coca-Cola and its #WorldWithoutWaste vision focus on three strategic pillars: design, collect and partner.
Investing in smart packaging designs is the first step towards a #worldwithoutwaste.
Beverage packaging has value and life beyond its original use and Coca-Cola believes that it should be collected and recycled into new packaging as part of the circular economy.
This means recycling materials as their original product or (when they can no longer be used) recycled into raw materials. In this way, nothing will be waste and the intrinsic value of the products will be preserved.
Better designed packaging
Coca-Cola in South Africa has made strides in packaging innovation. For example, Coca-Cola’s most popular pack, the 2L bottle, is now available in select geographies across South Africa in returnable/recyclable PET.
The 1.5L returnable/recyclable PET bottle has been available in the Western Cape for 28 years. Instead of producing single-use bottles, these bottles create another PET bottle to be cleaned and refilled until they are finally recycled to start the next life cycle.
Another step towards conscious packaging is the transition of Sprite’s iconic green packaging to transparent branding to enable greater reusability.
In the reaction process, green and other colored PET bottles are separated from clean materials to prevent discoloration of newly used PET materials.
By converting these bottles to clear PET, they can be easily recycled. In addition, our water brand Bonaqua is packaged in 100% recycled plastic, a first for the domestic market.
Coca-Cola’s other global packaging goals include having all packaging used recycled by 2024, selling at least 25% of its drinks in recycled formats by 2030, and including 50% recycled content in its packaging.
The company will be able to collect and sell the equivalent of every bottle by 2030 and will continue its journey to create a world free of waste in collaboration with various partners and communities.
