Coca-Cola has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Childhood memories include buying gumballs to drop into my glass bottled coke and watching it fizz, as well as commercials on t.v. showing people drinking Coca-Cola in glass bottles. By the time I was old enough to even be paying attention, suddenly, all soda was being sold in plastic bottles. In a disposable society, we thought nothing of it. Here we are, many years later, realizing the truth behind this convenient packaging. Plastic is causing pollution to our water and health hazards to humans and animals, alike. There is now a push to expect more responsible packaging from large corporations like PepsiCo, Nestle, and Coca-Cola. In response to environmental concerns, Coca-Cola has only concentrated on the recycling aspect of their plastic packaging in the past. We know that only about 9% of plastics are actually recycled. This is due to improper recycling, not enough demand for recycled plastics, and poor infrastructure in less developed countries.
Coca-Cola has been promoting their packaging for their bottled beverages using a new technology as a green product, using images of plants and other nature related imagery. They are calling the new bottle PlantBottle. It actually came out in 2009 but is now being mainstreamed as a product they even sell to their competitors to use. You can search for it using the hashtag #plantbottle.
But how green is it, exactly? What is it made from? Is it sustainable? Does it live up to what we would consider better for the environment?
Coca-Cola claims it is the world's first fully recyclable PET bottle made from plants. ( Coca-Cola, 2019)
"Coca-Cola claims that its PlantBottle is a step up from traditional plastics because it uses "plant-based material," mainly sugar cane, instead of petroleum (and other fossil fuel products) to create a necessary ingredient in PET plastic called monoethylene glycol. But Coca-Cola also says the percentage of plant material "varies by market," with bottles containing as much as 30 percent of the plant materials, at most. "In essence, we are trading fossil fuels for plant-based material without sacrificing performance or recyclability," cites Coca-Cola's corporate website." (Organic Authority, 2013) They maintain that there are no studies to show that is lessens CO2 emissions. While we applaud their recent departure from the American Plastics Association, I would rather see a bottle with no plastic at all, not just 30% reduction.
From a plastics standpoint, any reduction is the use of plastic is a step in the right direction. Personally, I still think glass bottles are the better choice since glass can recycled indefinitely and do not leech chemicals into the beverage. Notice the PlantBottle is not free of all plastic, just a reduction in plastic. Sometimes, it is easy in my area to find Coca-Cola in bottles that have been shipped in from their plant in Mexico. Other times, it seems impossible. The shipping requires use of fossil fuels to get it here, so there is that aspect. It is not entirely environmentally friendly in the carbon footprint area, either, but at least I am not poisoning myself with plastic chemicals. What do you think about the new PlantBottle? I'd love to hear your comments.
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