Coca Cola European Partners : Cola progresses on 100% recycled or renewable journey in Germany

Coca-Cola in Western Europe today takes another step forward in removing virgin fossil-based plastic as Coca-Cola in Germany announces it will achieve a share of recycled material of around 70 per cent for PET non-refillable bottles in 2021 as part of its journey towards 100% rPET for its entire locally produced portfolio.

A central principle of Coca-Cola's sustainability strategy is bottle-to-bottle recycling of beverage bottles as part of a low carbon, circular economy. That is why it is taking another big step in Germany towards 100% recycled or renewable content for its PET non-refillable bottles: the PET bottles of the ViO, Fuze Tea and Powerade brands will be completely converted to 100% rPET. For all other brands, all bottles up to a size of 0.5 litres as well as the 1.5-litre and the 2.0-litre bottles will transition to be made entirely of 100% rPET.

In its efforts to make PET non-refillable bottles more sustainable, Coca-Cola is also investing continuously in returnable packaging in Germany including investment in new refillable production lines, returnable containers, the expansion of the refillable bottle pool and new returnable crates in Germany. Most recently, two new refillable bottles were introduced to the German market in 2019 with the 1-litre glass bottles for Coca-Cola Classic, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar and the mineral water ViO. These investments are to be continued this year, including a new 0.4-litre refillable glass bottle.