Coca-Cola SA recycled more plastic than it made in 2018

The Coca-Cola Company in South Africa has announced an update on its global World Without Waste commitments. The company collected and recycled more polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic than what was produced within South Africa in 2018.

The Coca-Cola’s World Without Waste commitments, announced in January 2018, seek to reshape the corporation’s approach to packaging, with the global goal to collect and recycle the equivalent of its packaging by 2030.

In an official statement, the company said, ‘While food and beverage packaging is an important part of our modern lives, like many companies that make products we all love, The Coca-Cola Company recognises that our packaging has contributed to this global challenge.

‘Because our business relies on bottles and cans, we share a responsibility to help ensure that the world has a more sustainable packaging system in place.

‘As a global business, The Coca-Cola Company operates in countries which don’t have regulations or taxes in place regarding plastic packaging, however, we have taken it upon ourselves, with our bottling partners, to collect and recycle a can or bottle for every one we sell by 2030 as part of a vision called World Without Waste.

‘And we are doing this in many parts of Southern and East Africa.’

In 2004, The Coca-Cola Company, its bottlers and other manufacturers formed the non-profit PET Recycling Company PETCO. The NPO collects a voluntary recycling fee from converters and importers that use PET resin, the main ingredient in plastic bottles.

The fee is then used by local recycling partners for every kilogram of post-consumer PET that is bought from collectors.

This helps to sustain the recycling sector by increasing the value of recycling PET.

‘As a result of the PETCO system in South Africa, the recycling rate of PET in South Africa has rocketed from just 14% in 2005 to over 65% of total PET volumes in 2018.

‘This puts South Africa ahead of developed markets such as the EU (2016: 60%) and US (2016: 28.4%) when it comes to PET collection rates.

‘In 2018, the Coca-Cola system in South Africa collected more PET than it put into the market – 113% to be precise,’ said Coca-Cola in a statement.

Image: Unsplash

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