Australian beverages manufacturer Coca-Cola Amatil has announced a commitment for 100% of its Australian packaging to be recyclable by 2025, including all bottles, cans, plastic wrap, glass, and paperboard. The company will also work toward phasing out unnecessary single-use packaging through improved design, innovation, or the use of recycled alternatives.
Coca-Cola Amatil is one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of ready-to-drink non-alcohol and alcohol beverages, coffee, and ready-to-eat food snacks in the Asia Pacific region. Coca-Cola Amatil is also the authorized manufacturer and distributor of The Coca-Cola Company’s beverage brands in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa
Group Managing Director Alison Watkins says the commitments are part of the National Packaging Targets announced by Federal Environment Minister, the Hon Melissa Price MP.
“As a beverages manufacturer, we’re serious about playing our part in addressing recycling,” Says Watkins. “We’ve heard the community message loud and clear—that unnecessary packaging is unacceptable, and we all need to work together to reduce the amount entering litter streams, the environment, and the oceans.
“The National Packaging Targets aim to make a substantive improvement in packaging waste reduction, which is why we’re proud to be a founding supporter and to champion their implementation by industry.”
Australia’s 2025 National Packaging Targets are:
• 100% of all Australia’s packaging will be reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025 or earlier
• 70% of Australia’s plastic packaging will be recycled or composted by 2025
• 30% average recycled content will be included across all packaging by 2025
• Problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic packaging will be phased out through design, innovation, or introduction of alternatives
Earlier this year, the 600-mL Mount Franklin Spring Water bottle was launched using 100% recycled content, with trials under way on reaching an average of 50% recycled content across the Australian portfolio by 2020.
Watkins says the targets were in addition to existing commitments on plastics and packaging reduction, including the aspiration of “World Without Waste,” a Coca-Cola Company goal to collect and recycle one bottle or can for every one produced, worldwide, by 2030.
Amatil and brand partner and shareholder The Coca-Cola Company are also developing sustainable packaging goals to increase the recycled content in plastic bottles and support recycling collection in Australia. Recognizing the threat of marine plastic litter, The Coca-Cola Company has joined governments and industry leaders to sign on to the Ocean Plastics Charter. Originally adopted at the 2018 G7 Summit, the Ocean Plastics Charter calls on governments, industry, and the public to rethink their relationship with plastics.
