Coca-Cola Phases Out Returnable Glass Bottles Across Plants

The Coca-Coola Company has started phasing out returnable glass bottles (rgb) across its production plants worldwide.

Accordingly, the Company has entered into a partnership with JBF Industries Ltd to further expand global production of packaging material made from plants.
The company had been refilling the returnable bottles since 1932 but said it no longer makes business sense to continue doing so.

Ronald Lewis, Vice President/Chief Procurement Officer at The Coca-Cola Company said that the supply partnership with JBF Industries will help Coca-Cola continue its leadership in bringing renewable, lower-carbon plastics to the marketplace and move the company closer to its target of using plant bottle packaging technology in all of its plastic bottles by 2020.

“The benefits of sustainable innovation are only fully realized when commercialized and put in the hands of consumers. In 2009, we introduced the world to our plant bottle package — the first recyclable PET plastic bottle made partially from plants. Today, Coca-Cola has sold more than 10 billion plant bottle packages around the world that are less dependent on petroleum and have a lower carbon impact.

“Since the package launched in 2009, its use has eliminated the equivalent of almost 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions – the equivalent of 200,000 barrels of oil from The Coca-Cola Company’s PET plastic packaging. Plant bottle packaging is available in more than 24 countries worldwide and across a wide variety of Coca-Cola products,” he said.