Increase Reusable Packaging | Oceana

COCA-COLA: INCREASE REUSABLE PACKAGING

The Campaign

Increasing refillable and reusable bottles in place of single-use plastic is an important way to combat the plastic crisis overwhelming our seas. Refillable bottles, the dominant form of reusable packaging used by major beverage companies and their bottlers, get reused up to 50 times. Unfortunately, Coca-Cola recently abandoned its “World Without Waste” initiative, including its goal to increase reusable packaging. Instead, the company is doubling down on single-use plastic, prioritizing measures that won’t meaningfully reduce its plastic footprint. Our oceans need Coca-Cola, as the world’s largest beverage company, to lead the way by addressing its plastic problem and prioritizing reuse by making refillable bottles available for sale everywhere.

The Problem

Without real action and a change from its current course, by 2030, Oceana estimates that up to 1.3 billion pounds (602,000 metric tons) of the plastic packaging Coca-Cola uses annually could enter the world’s waterways and oceans. Despite beverage companies commitments to increase recycling efforts and use of recycled content, recycling alone can’t fix this problem. Just 9% of all the plastic waste ever generated has been recycled. Moreover, plastic PET bottles made with recycled content can still reach and pollute the oceans.

What Beverage Companies Should Do

There is a solution to this problem. Oceana is campaigning for Coca-Cola to increase reusable packaging in place of single-use plastic. Oceana found that if Coca-Cola were to reach just over 25% reusable packaging by 2030, the company could “bend its plastic curve”—reducing its annual plastic use below current levels.

Refillable bottles were introduced by Coca-Cola in the 1940s. While many consumers remember the iconic glass refillable bottles, both glass and PET plastic refillable bottles are now widely used in, for example, India, Germany, Chile, the Philippines, and Mexico.

Some of the benefits of refillables include:

  • Refillable bottle schemes have nearly a 100% success rate for getting the bottle back.
  • Refillable bottles are reused up to 50 times.
  • Refillable bottles can drastically reduce the number of single-use bottles being thrown out.
  • Refillable bottles can be a climate-friendly option.

Increasing the share of refillables and decreasing marine plastic pollution by billions of bottles is achievable. Just four companies account for over 40% of sales (in terms of revenue) for the enormous non-alcoholic ready-to-drink market. These companies have the ability to change the overall beverage market, which means that increasing refillables and reducing marine plastic pollution is achievable in the near-term. That’s why Oceana is calling on global beverage companies to commit to substantially reducing plastic production and to increase refillables as a way to achieve this needed goal.

 

 

Take Action

KICKSTART REUSE AT FIFA WORLD CUP 26™

Tell Coca-Cola to kick single-use plastic waste out of sports stadiums.

SIGN THE PETITION

KEEP THE TORCH LIT FOR REUSE AT FUTURE OLYMPICS

Tell Coca-Cola and Olympic Organizing Committees to commit now.

SIGN THE PETITION

TELL COLA-COLA TO INCREASE REUSABLE PACKAGING

Call on the company to recommit to a World Without Waste.

SIGN THE PETITION

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