It appears that the title of the world's largest plastic polluter (for 4 consecutive years) you finally start getting on the nerves of Coca-Cola executives.
After declaring just last year that it did not intend to go plastic-free, the Coca-Cola Company has slowly begun to re-evaluate its supply chain and choice of materials.
Thanks to a partnership with the Danish company paboco (producer of paper bottles), Coca-Cola has just presented its first “paper bottle”.
The paper bottle
Available for a limited online trial in Hungary, Coca-Cola is planning a limited release of 2.000 bottles of its plant-based drink AdeZ. It's almost nothing to start with, but it's an interesting sample to gather initial feedback. Paboco, the company behind the bottle's design, may receive a major boost to continue development.
What is the paper bottle that Coca-Cola is testing like?
Paboco's paper bottle features an internal biopolymer lining to provide a waterproof barrier (so the paper doesn't get soaked). The outer layer is made from a Nordic wood pulp paper and provides the perfect substrate for printing, eliminating the need for a label. The bottle itself can be shaped just like plastic bottles, pioneering the use of shapes, textures and patterns to make the product stand out... and the necks of the bottle can also be threaded, allowing for the use of a paper cap (with the option also of corrugated metal caps).
Although the paper bottle is biodegradable, Coca-Cola hopes to develop a design and supply chain that still allows bottles to be recycled just like paper.
Our vision is to create a paper bottle that can be recycled like any other type of paper, and this prototype is the first step to achieve this.
Stijn Franssen, EMEA R&D Packaging Innovation Manager of Coca-Cola
I am skeptical
The limited edition of Coca-Cola finds me very skeptical (2000 bottles is really, really insufficient) but the challenge is really difficult. Imagine the company's production volumes. Bottles can easily be crushed or damaged if transported in large volumes, a complication that increases exponentially when we think about carbonated drinks. For this reason, perhaps, products like AdeZ can be useful. These are dense smoothies without gas or ferments. If this approach works, Coca-Cola may look to gradually expand it. I would consider just launching the entire Adez line with paper bottles a significant first goal.
