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recycled material

Coca-Cola produces first recycled carbonated soft drink bottle

Coca-Cola Amatil has produced Australia’s first carbonated soft drink bottles made from 100 per cent recycled plastic.

Following this development, the company announced all single-serve plastic bottles in Australia would switch to fully recycled material by the end of 2019.

Group Managing Director Alison Watkins said while 100 per cent recycled plastic had previously been used in still beverages, it had never been successfully used for carbonated drinks.

According to Ms Watkins, the pressure in a soft drink bottle is three times that of a car tyre, as such, bottles for carbonated drinks require stronger material than those for still beverages.

“That’s been an obstacle in using 100 per cent recycled materials for these types of drinks,” Ms Watkins said.

“I’m pleased to say we’ve overcome this challenge through innovation and design, and we are now the first in Australia to make 100 per cent recycled plastic bottles for carbonated beverages.”

Ms Watkins said the change to 100 per cent recycled plastic would reduce Coca-Cola’s use of virgin plastic by roughly 10,000 tonnes a year.

“Community and commercial pressure is driving a rapid take-up of recycled materials in bottling,” Ms Watkins said.

“The new 100 per cent recycled plastic bottle range supports the Coca-Cola Company’s aspiration for a world without waste, an ambition to help collect and recycle one bottle or can for each one it produces.”

The company’s Mount Franklin Still range was switched to 100% recycled plastic bottles in 2018.

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ACOR calls for more recycled packaging after plastic bag ban

The Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR) has called on large Australian brands to commit to using recycled content in their packaging as Coles and Woolworths phase out single-use plastic bags.

ACOR CEO Pete Shmigel said the move to stop supplying plastic bags in supermarkets is a good step, but a bigger move for the environment and economy is ensuring recycled content material is used for packaging.

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“Giving consumers a chance to buy recycled content products has more benefits than bag bans, and survey work shows more than 80 per cent of Aussies support such a move. Ministers can do more to encourage recycled content in packaging at their next discussion about the China crisis,” Mr Shmigel said.

“Putting recycled content into Australian packaging creates domestic demand for collected material and that drives investment and jobs in remanufacturing into new products, and lower risk for Councils’ kerbside recycling collections.”

“At present, Coles appears to have a voluntary target of 5 per cent of products sold having recycled content. It’s unclear what Woolworths’ target is.”

Mr Shmigel said it would be great if both companies announced what their targets are for recycled content going into the future.

“Without recycled content and other measures to make recycling sustainable, we are ‘pushing’ material out and not ‘pulling’ it through. It just shifts more costs to local governments for recycling services. If we can’t get progress through voluntary measures, the community is right to expect regulation to get it done, as is the case in Europe,” Mr Shmigel said.

“Coca-Cola is showing what can be done. Mount Franklin water bottles are all made with recycled content plastic, and they are looking at switching 50% of all their bottles to recycled content,” he said.

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