Coca-Cola (KO) now makes some of its bottles entirely out of sugar cane, the company trumpeted recently at the Expo Milano food conference.
Called the PlantBottle, the packaging differs in that it’s derived from sugar cane, not petroleum.
“The first-ever fully recyclable PET plastic beverage bottle made partially from plants looks and functions just like traditional PET plastic, but has a lighter footprint on the planet and its scarce resources,” the company said in a release. The new technology accounts for 30% of the company’s packaging in North America and 7% globally, Coca-Cola said.
The packaging isn’t entirely new. A version was first released in 2009, but at that time it was 30% plant-based plastic, according to Business Insider. Now, it’s made from 100% plastic derived from sugar cane.
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“To date, more than 35 billion PlantBottle packages have been distributed in nearly 40 countries,” said Coca-Cola in a statement. “The technology has enabled us to eliminate the potential for more than 315,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions—equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from burning more than 743,000 barrels of oil—and save more than 36 million gallons of gas.”
