A new Greenpeace survey of the largest global soft drink companies shows that recycled content constitutes a small fraction of the PET used to create bottles around the world.
Greenpeace reached out to Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo, Suntory, Danone, Dr Pepper Snapple and Nestlé to gauge the use of recycled PET in new containers while using the hot-button issue of ocean plastics pollution as a backdrop. Coca-Cola did not disclose global figures, the group said.
"The survey reveals that despite urging customers to be environmentally friendly, the top six soft drinks companies in the world use a combined average of just 6.6 percent recycled PET globally," the new report states.
"That equates to 14 times less recycled plastic than virgin plastic used across their global packaging. Furthermore a third of the soft drinks brands surveyed (Dry Pepper Snapple and Suntory) currently have no targets to increase their rPET in their plastic bottles," according to the report.
* PET recycling is one of the focus areas to be discussed in a conference organised by Plastics Recyclers Europe during the Plastics Recycling Show in Amsterdam on 29-30 March. Register for the PRS Europe conference and exhibition, organised by Crain Communications, at www.prseventeurope.com.