The Need: As the world’s largest beverage company, The Coca-Cola Company has a responsibility to address the plastic waste crisis facing the world. We believe strengthening the circular economy is the most impactful way to address waste and climate issues created by packaging.
One of the company’s World Without Waste goals is to use at least 50% recycled material in our bottles and cans by 2030.
The Solution: Over the past decade, DASANI has challenged the status quo in beverage packaging and continually strived to reduce its environmental footprint.
This summer, DASANI introduced bottles made from 100% recycled plastic* (excluding caps and labels) across the U.S. and Canada. This innovation spans all immediate consumer packages including individual 20-ounce, 1-liter and 1.5-liter DASANI bottles and 10-ounce and 12-ounce multipacks in the U.S.
In Canada, all DASANI package sizes have transitioned to 100% recycled plastic bottles (excluding caps and labels): individual 500mL, 1-liter and 1.5-liter bottles and 355mL and 591mL multipacks.
Which of the Pact’s 4 Targets does your work help achieve? TARGET 4: By 2025, the average recycled content or responsibly sourced bio-based content in plastic packaging will be 30%
What makes it particularly smart or circular? Bottles made with 100% recycled plastic* create and sustain a circular economy for PET through recycling efforts. The circular economy is critical to ensuring that plastic waste stays out of the environment and is instead continuously recycled and reused.
It takes less energy and resources to create a bottle from recycled plastic – for every pound of recycled plastic (rPET) material used (in lieu of new PET), greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 65%.
No new plastic (PET) is used in the creation of bottles made from 100% rPET*. The introduction of bottles made from 100% recycled plastic* will advance The Coca-Cola company’s ambitions to reduce virgin packaging and offer sustainable solutions at scale. Our ability to use 100% rPET in DASANI across the U.S. and Canada is a direct result of consumers’ sustained commitment to recycling, therefore extending the life cycle of packaging and contributing to the circular economy.
Results, Benefits, and Outcomes to Date: By moving to bottles made of 100% recycled plastic,* DASANI expects to save over 20 million pounds of new plastic compared to 2019 – the equivalent of 552 million bottles – in 2023 alone.
Core Team, Partners, & Participants: The transition to 100% rPET (excluding cap and label) for DASANI was a cross-functional effort. Key internal partners include marketing, technical, supply chain, research and development, sustainability and public affairs.
Quote: “Over the past decade, DASANI has challenged the status quo in beverage packaging and continually strived to reduce its environmental footprint. The introduction of bottles made from 100% recycled plastic (excluding cap and label) will advance The Coca-Cola company’s ambitions to reduce virgin packaging and offer sustainable solutions at scale.” – Kurt Ritter, Vice President and General Manager, Sustainability, North America Operating Unit, The Coca-Cola Company