Coca-Cola Co. is eliminating the use of green PET in North America, a move designed to help boost bottle-to-bottle recycling.
The Atlanta-based beverage giant also will convert the majority of Dasani water bottles in the United States to 100 percent recycled PET starting this summer.
The use of green PET for beverage containers has long been a topic of discussion within the plastics recycling sector.
Recyclers collect and reprocess green PET, but the resin has to be separated from clear PET containers to avoid color contamination. The segregated PET is often used for non-bottle applications such as strapping and carpeting.
Moving to clear PET will free up those containers for bottle-to-bottle efforts as Coca-Cola strives to use at least 50 percent recycled material in the company's bottles and cans by 2030.
"Taking colors out of bottles improves the quality of the recycled material," CEO Julian Ochoa of R3CYCLE Industries in Waxhaw, N.C., said in a statement. The PET recycler works with Coca-Cola Consolidated, the brand's largest bottler with a 14-state territory.
"This transition will help increase availability of food-grade rPET [recycled PET]. When recycled, clear PET Sprite bottles can be remade into bottles, helping drive a circular economy for plastic."
While Coca-Cola is highlighting the move from green to clear PET for Sprite, the move actually includes transitioning from green PET for all brands in North America using that color. The move includes Fresca, Seagram's and Mello Yellow.
"Demand for rPET currently exceeds supply, so the first step to scaling up use of 100 percent rPET across our portfolio is building a sustainable pipeline of high-quality material," said Chris Vallette, senior vice president of technical innovation and stewardship for Coca-Cola North America, in a statement.
Coca-Cola also indicated a majority of Dasani bottles in the United States — from 20 ounces to 1.5 liter-single bottle and 10-ounce and 12-ounce multipacks — will be made from 100-percent recycled plastic. All Dasani bottles in Canada will be in recycled PET. This change does not include caps and labels, the company said.
The company expects to eliminate the use of 20 million pounds of virgin plastic, when compared to 2019 totals, by making the switch. Greenhouse gas emissions will decrease by more than 25,000 metric tons because recycled plastic bottles take less energy to create than their virgin counterparts, Coca-Cola said.