Coca-Cola is one of the leading soft drink industries globally. Its soft drinks are sold in numerous places, such as stores and vending machines. According to Coca Cola's 2010 annual report, approximately 1.7 billion servings of Coca-Cola are sold per day. In fact, one of the cool facts about Coca-Cola is that if all the Coca-Cola bottles in the word were laid end to end they would reach the moon and back more than 1,677 times. 10,450 soft drinks from Coca-Cola are consumed every second of every day, including Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite etc. These statistics show how consumption of Coca-Cola is widely spread throughout the world and Coca-Cola products are very attractive and popular among the consumers. All these statistics however fail to encapsulate how Coca-Cola is not only striving to become a global leader in soft drink products, but also trying to become environmentally sustainable. 

 

In fact, according to Coca-Cola's website, Coca-Cola's PlantBottle packing range received the Susainable Pack of the Year prize at the UK Packaing Awards 2012, beating other initiatives implemented by brands, namely Waitress and PG Tips. Coca-Cola has further noted that its PET plastic bottles are "made partially plant-based materials and are also 100% recyclable." More specifically, the PlantBottle Plastic is made up of up to 22.5% of plant-based PET plastic, up to 25% recycled PET plastic and regular PET plastic. This initiative was launched in 2009 at Copenhagen - it was the "first every recyclable bottle made partially from plants." 

 

As consumers we are also responsible for posing less negative environmental impact towards nature. Coca-Cola has suggested multiple solutions and ways for us to become more sustainable consumers. Here are the list of solutions:

1. Look for the PlantBottle logo on Coca-Cola?s packaging in stores

2. Recycle your empty bottles so they can be used again

3. Recycle plastic bottles. A plastic bottle can become another plastic bottle, bag, an umbrella, a chair etc.

 

Recently, I've watched Coca-Cola's Recycling Campaigns in Vietnam and Singapore videos that were uploaded on YouTube.

 

The first video is called, "Fatastica Idea de coca cola Vietnam 2015 (Great Idea 2014 Vietnam coca cola)". Coca-Cola consumers in Vietnam used old Coca-Cola plastic bottles to make other innovative products, such as toys for babies, a water spray that can be used for watering plants, a pencil sharpener, a shampoo and lotion containers, a small dumbbell for exercising, another plastic bottle for drinking etc. This video perfectly shows how Coca-Cola plastic bottles can be reused and recycled into other goods that are very useful to our daily lives. By doing so, we can simply reduce the waste produced!

The intro of this video was also very catchy- it asked couple of rhetorical questions that immediately grabbed the audience's attention: 1. What if empty coke bottles were never thrown away? and 2. What if they had a life after coke?

Here is the link to the video if you want to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1d8ePXioIs

 

The second video is called, "Coca-Cola Singapore Recycle Happiness Machine." It starts off by stating and revealing a "Least known fact #498: Plastic bottles are full of opportunity. A recycled bottle can be reincarnated as a t-shrit, tote bag, furniture and more." It also stressed the concern that "in Singapore, only 11% of plastics get recycled." Thus, in order to address this issue, Coca-Cola came up with in brilliant ways to inspire more people to recycle. In fact, during the week prior to Earth hour in 2012, Coca-Cola Singapore implemented an initiative and brought in a big machine. According to coca-colacompany website, "consumers who recycled their plastic beverage bottles in the 'Recycled Happiness Machine' were pleasantly surprised with gifts such as fresh flowers, 1.5 liter bottles of Coca-Cola or Coca-Cola collectibles such as t-shirts, bags and caps made from recycled plastic bottles." Each gift also had a small note to "encourage the public to continue recycling." As I watched the video, I could observe and witness people enjoying recycling and receiving small gifts. I definitely believe that Coca-Cola truly deserves its recognition for inspiring people to adopt environmentally sustainable lifestyles and habits. 

Here is the link to the video if you want to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D-RejzbC0Q

 

If Coca-Cola continues initiating many environmental campaigns and projects, I definitely believe that Coca-Cola can reach and achieve its 2020 goal, which is "a 75% recovery rate of bottles and cans in developed markets." Coca-Cola has indeed made huge leap and progress towards becoming more sustainable. 

 

 

Article Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola

http://www.coca-cola.co.uk/125/coca-cola-fun-facts-infographic.html

http://www.coca-colacompany.com/happiness-recycled-coca-cola-singapore-increases-recycle-rates-with-recycle-happiness-machine