The soda-making company has apparently gone on the environment-friendly bandwagon. Coca-Cola has recently revealed that it has made new Coke bottles using just plants.
"Coca-Cola now makes some of its bottles entirely out of sugar cane, the company trumpeted recently at the Expo Milano food conference," Time reported. "Called the PlantBottle, the packaging differs in that it's derived from sugar cane, not petroleum."
Green advocates may applaud at this announcement, given the company's large production volume of PET bottles.
"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," Coca-Cola announced in a statement.
"To date, more than 35 billion PlantBottle packages have been distributed in nearly 40 countries," it went on to say. "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."
Further, the company said that it is focused on leading "he consumer packaged goods industry away from its dependence on non-renewable fossil fuels and toward using renewable plant-based alternatives" and that it is commited to do the right thing in the right way, as also noted by Mashable.
Will other beverage makers follow Coca-Cola's example?
The PlantBottle had been introduced back in 2009 as a prototype. It had gone on to comprise a larger percentage of the bottles the company is using to fill its signature beverage with. However, while 30% of the Coke bottles in North America are plant-based, only 7% of those around the globe are PlantBottles, CNN Money said.
"The company says its goal is to exclusively use PlantBottles in place of petroleum-based plastic bottles by 2020," the news source added.
In addition, the soda making company is working with the likes of Ford, Heinz, Procter & Gamble, Nike, and SeaWorld to help them "use more plant materials in their plastics."
Indeed, this initiative will help reduce environmental issues. With that, will Coca-Cola soon do something towards the promotion of good health, as well? It's a known fact that sodas, or sugary drinks in general, have been "a major contributor to the obesity epidemic," Harvard School of Public Health noted. This is despite the presence of diet variants of sodas. After making environment-friendly bottles, will the beverage maker address health concerns later by modifying its ingredients?
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