Coca-Cola European Partners Great Britain unveils new sustainable packaging strategy

Coca-Cola European Partners has unveiled a new sustainable packaging strategy for Great Britain, which sees it aim to double the amount of recycled plastic in all of its bottles to 50 percent by 2020.

The new strategy sets out the Company’s ambition for its GB business unit to work with local and national partners to recover all its packaging so that more is recycled and does not end up as litter.

At present, only 70 percent of the cans1 and 57 percent2 of the plastic bottles used each year are recycled, CCEP says “these figures should be higher”.

Through its new GB sustainable packaging strategy, the company has set out the key actions it will take, and the areas where it will look to work with others, to improve the recovery and recycling of drinks packaging, and to reduce littering in Great Britain.

The new strategy is focused on three key areas:

Continuing to innovate to ensure its packaging is as sustainable as possible

CCEP wants to build on its work in the area of lightweighting and the use of recycled materials, with plans to double the amount of recycled plastic in every one of its PET bottles over the next three years – from the current average of 25 percent to 50 percent by 2020.

To achieve this target it will continue its long-term partnership with Clean Tech, which operates Europe’s largest and most advanced plastic bottle reprocessing facility in Lincolnshire, which CCEP says will support the circular economy in Great Britain and enable recycled bottles to return to shop shelves as part of new packs in as little as six weeks.

Investing in consumer communication to promote recycling and encourage behaviour change

As part of the new strategy, Coca-Cola will use the power of its brands to inspire more consumers to recycle. This will include the launch of a multi-million pound communications campaign designed to inspire more people to recycle. The company will also be putting a new recycling message on bottles this year and promoting recycling to six million people at festivals and events.

Championing reform of the UK recycling system to ensure more packaging is recovered and recycled

The company says it will continue to work in partnership with others – including the Governments of Great Britain – to improve the current packaging recycling system. To support the growth of the circular economy in Great Britain, CCEP says it “will champion well-designed new interventions that have the potential to increase packaging collection and recycling rates, including stronger recycling targets, deposit return schemes and extended producer responsibility.”

In addition, as part of its commitment to support DEFRA’s new working group on voluntary and economic incentives to reduce littering, CCEP says it will seek to advance its own knowledge of how consumers are motivate by an incentive-based scheme by testing an on-the-go bottle collection and reward programme.

This test, it says, will examine the behavioural impact of reward schemes and help inform any future national approaches to reducing litter and increasing collection and recycling rates. More details on these trials will be announced later this year.

“Our goal is to work with local and national partners to ensure all of our packaging is recovered and recycled”

Leendert den Hollander, Vice President and General Manager at Coca-Cola European Partners GB, said: “Coca-Cola operates in Great Britain as two businesses – Coca-Cola Great Britain and its bottling partner Coca-Cola European Partners – and it is through this strong partnership that we have been able to make significant progress in recent years. However, both companies realise there is much more to be done and we have worked together to build an end-to-end strategy focused on meaningful actions in three key areas.

“Our goal is to work with local and national partners to ensure all of our packaging is recovered and recycled. Our new strategy sets out how we will start work to achieve that.

“Our desire to double the amount of recycled material we use in our plastic bottles sends a clear signal that we want to play a positive role in supporting the circular economy here in Great Britain. Our ambition – and our ability to go further in the future – will require reform of the packaging collection system in Great Britain and we will work with others to champion the changes that are required to ensure all our valuable materials are recovered.”

Chris Brown, Managing Director at Clean Tech, said: “We’re are pleased Coca-Cola is making a significant commitment to increasing the recycled content in their bottles. We, as part of Plastipak, are proud to be the largest producer of food-grade recycled PET plastic in Europe and our significant partnership with Coca-Cola actively demonstrates the increasing demand for high quality recycled plastic in the drinks industry. We want to provide manufacturers like Coca-Cola with even more of this material, but to do that the first step is to recover more used bottles.”

Marcus Gover, Chief Executive of WRAP, said: “To have a brand as well-known and with the reach of Coca-Cola actively encouraging more people to recycle is a really positive step which we welcome. A commitment that half of all the plastic they use will be recycled plastic, understanding that this will cost the business more, shows real leadership in the industry and provides the essential market for recovered materials. Initiatives like this are much needed if we are to change consumer behaviour and recover and recycle more – WRAP and Recycle Now are excited to be working with them on this. We need more big brands to help inspire people to do their part.”

^{1. 70 per cent of cans recycled - Alupro.org.uk}

^{2. 57 per cent of plastic bottles recycled - Recoup UK Household Plastics Collection Survey 2016}