Coca-Cola promises to collect and recycle ALL its packaging by 2030
The fizzy drinks company said it aims to recycle a bottle or can for each one it sells globally as part of its strategy to create 'a world without waste.'
COCA-COLA has promised to collect and recycle all of its packaging by 2030.
The fizzy drinks company said that it aims to recycle a bottle or can for every one it sells globally, so it has more than one life.
Eventually, this would mean that it will recycle the equivalent of all its packaging in less than 15 years.
The efforts are part of the company's larger strategy to "create a world without waste."
It comes as drinks manufacturers face increasing pressure to make their products more environmentally friendly.
Coca-Cola, whose brands also include Fanta, Sprite, Oasis, Lilt and Schweppes last year announced it will increase the amount of recycled plastic in its bottles by 50 per cent.
That's a doubling of the current amount of 25 per cent.
“The world has a packaging problem – and, like all companies, we have a responsibility to help solve it," Coke's boss, James Quincey, said.
"We are investing in our planet and our packaging to help make this problem a thing of the past," he added.
But campaigners said the measures did not go far enough and failed to include any reduction of the company’s use of single-use plastic bottles.
One million plastic bottles are purchased worldwide every minute – a total of 480 billion each year, according to figures from market research company
Around 100 billion of these are thought to be Coca-Cola bottles, Greenpeace estimates.
Tisha Brown, Oceans Campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said: "Support for recycling is important but it won’t solve the ocean plastic problem.
"Coke need to follow the lead of companies like Iceland and massively reduce the amount of plastic they are using, and on that front this plan has fallen flat."
"A litter free world is possible – but only if big companies like Coke stop producing ever growing quantities of plastic litter. They need to reduce and reuse as well as recycle."
Coca-Cola is the latest retailer to announce sustainability plans following a warning from Theresa May that the 8.3billion tons of plastic produced since the 1950s will more than triple to 34billion tons by 2050 without urgent action.
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This week fast food chain McDonald's promised to make all of its packaging recyclable by 2025.
Over the next seven years, the restaurant chain will work on making all bags, straws, wrappers and cups from recycled or renewable materials.
Iceland also announced that it plans to ban plastic packaging within the next five years.
WASTE WAR Shoppers pay up to 54% more to buy fruit and veg loose – here’s how much the war on plastic will cost you
Meanwhile, coffee chain Starbucks is going to start charging some customers in London an extra 5p for their paper cup in order to encourage the use of reusable ones.
The Sun Online reported how shoppers are paying up to 54 per cent MORE for loose fruit and veg than if they buy them wrapped in plastic packaging.
The price of fresh fruit and veg in leading supermarkets Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco we're found to be between 10 per cent and 54 per cent more expensive.
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