[China Packaging Network] On June 3, Coca-Cola showed its new product packaging at the Milan Expo Food Technology Conference. The bottle body is still made of plastic, but instead of using oil as raw material, it is instead extracted from sugar cane. So it's actually a plastic bottle, but don't really bite it.
This new packaging breakthrough is also a result of Coca-Cola's promotion of new green packaging technology. In 2009, Coca-Cola first introduced a "botanical environmental protection bottle," 30% of the bottle body is made of plant ingredients. This new packaging is a new level and has become the world's first 100% botanical beverage package.
The raw material of the bottle is sugarcane. Coca-Cola not only uses sugarcane planted in Brazil as raw material, but also recovers a lot of waste left by the Indian sugarcane processing industry. Although only these two channels can provide enough raw materials, Coca-Cola also announced that in the future, they will continue to seek new raw materials, such as roots, peels and bark.
The new packaging has not yet been put into use, but preliminary preparation work is in progress. Coca-Cola has cooperated with a number of biotechnology companies and hopes to put the results into commercial use, allowing 100% plant-made green packaging to flow into the market. Coca-Cola said that the ultimate goal is to do a "100% reusable, recycled bottle."
According to the Coca-Cola Company, starting in 2009, they have invested more than 35 billion in more than 40 countries in plant environmental protection bottles. The results are also welcome, and it is estimated that this green packaging technology reduces the emissions of 319,000 metric tons of CO2 in the atmosphere, equivalent to the total amount of carbon dioxide released from burning 743,000 barrels of oil or 36 million gallons of gasoline.
In North America, 30% of Coca-Cola packaging on the market is such a plant green bottle. But looking at the world, this proportion is only 7%. Therefore, the company’s next step is to allow the plant green bottles to completely replace traditional plastic bottles in 2020.
“We have an obligation to produce more sustainable packaging,†Coca-Cola said in a statement. “We are responsible for environmental protection and this is part of our brand.â€
Coca-Cola has also partnered with brands such as Ford, Heinz, Nike, P&G, and SeaWorld to promote the use of plant materials in the production of products. Some of the brand's products and packaging have used plants as raw materials for the bottles of the Heinz Ketchup, the Seward plastic cups, and the plastic parts of the Ford Fusion series hybrid sedan model.
“We will be committed to producing more environmentally friendly packaging and will not rely on non-renewable materials such as fossil fuels in the future.†Coca-Cola announced, “This is not easy, but it is our commitment to do the right thing in the name of environmental protection. â€