Sprite ditches the green bottle in favor of a “greener” option

Coca-Cola is changing the way it packages some of its popular drinks to better “support a circular economy for plastic packaging”, the company wrote in a statement Wednesday.

One of those changes will impact Sprite’s iconic green bottle, which will be discontinued after nearly six decades in the market. Starting August 1, the fizzy drink will be served in clear plastic bottles to increase its chances of being recycled into other containers after their first use.

The new Sprite bottles will also feature revamped packaging to “provide a consistent look and voice worldwide”, and will feature the classic green color as well as prominent “Recycle Me” logos.

In the coming months, all of Coca-Cola’s beverages that are typically packaged in green bottles — including Fresca, Seagram’s and Mello Yello — will switch to similar clear PET plastic.

“Removing colors from bottles improves the quality of the recycled material,” wrote Julian Ochoa, CEO of R3CYCLE, a Coca-Cola partner company, in a statement. “This transition will help increase the availability of food-grade rPET. When recycled, clear Sprite PET bottles can be made into bottles, helping to foster a circular economy for plastic. »

Already, Coca-Cola has rolled out clear bottles for the lemon-lime flavored drink in major markets like Western Europe and Southeast Asia, and some varieties — like sugar-free — are only available. in similar transparent plastic.

The beverage supplier will also make changes to its DASANI water bottles. In the US, a “majority” of DASANI bottle sizes will be made from 100% recyclable plastic, except for the multi-colored bottle caps; the same change will be made for all DASANI cylinders sold in Canada.

Coca-Cola announced a global “World Without Waste” campaign several years ago in which it aims to recycle one bottle or can for every product sold by 2030, as part of an effort to reduce its environmental impact, and in 2021 says all US bottles would be made from 100% recycled materials.

Yet most single-use plastics end up in landfills, and the United Nations estimates up to 85% of global plastic packaging used for beverages and food containers becomes ‘unregulated waste’.

It’s partly for this reason that Coca-Cola executives believe changing Sprite’s ionic packaging is for the better.

“Consumers are sometimes surprised by change, and we’re ready to hear our consumers discuss it,” AP Chaney, creative director of The Coca-Cola Company, told AdWeek in a statement. “But we know it’s the right way to move forward with the brand.”