Coca-Cola's PlantBottle is not new. The first PlantBottle was introduced in 2009. But that wasn't the end of its story. Coca-Cola has been developing it ever since.
Coca-Cola currently uses PET that is 30% renewably sourced in many of its core brands. Of the two main ingredients of PET, mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) and purified terephthalic acid (PTA), the MEG portion, which makes up around 30% of the PET molecule by weight, can be produced from natural plant sources.
Coca-Cola uses MEG derived from Brazilian sugar cane to make its PlantBottle 1.0.
The company is also exploring the possibilities of using second-generation feedstocks for the production of bio-MEG. That feedstock will create Plantbottle 1.1.
But Coca-Cola is looking much further forward. Its 100% biobased Plantbottle is ready to go on show. And that will happen at Expo Milano, that opens on 1 May this year. Coca-Cola is the official soft drink partner of the event.
Klaus Stadler, Coca-Cola's EU Group Director Environment & Water Resources, stated, “We're aiming for a future in which no more oil-based materials will be needed: We'll be using renewably sourced and recycled material, instead."
Coca-Cola is already is the world's largest user of bioplastics and PET is 60% of its packaging.
PlantBottle 2.0, the 100% biobased PlantBottle, is the result of a long-term commitment with industry partners, Gevo and Virent, to develop a bio-derived PTA, the other 70% component of PET.
It will take another five to eight years for bio-PTA to become available in commercial quantities.
Stadler noted, "We expect our PlantBottle technology to reach price parity with conventional PET by 2018. We need scale. PlantBottle packaging drives volume, value and brand love, so we are selling products with emotions, equating plants with happiness. It has proven to be a good combination for our juice and water products. But we've also entered into various partnerships to scale up the implementation of the technology."
The road to PlantBottle 2.0 as a viable product is currently blocked by several challenges. Scaling up the new technologies to achieve commercialisation is one. Market and regulatory uncertainties and the fuel industry's subsidies are three others.
“We have run up against the EU's agriculture protection laws, for example, and face problems such as the cost burden due to duties and taxes," Stadler commented. This is why Coca-Cola is making some of its PlantBottle investments further afield.
