Cardboard Drink Packaging Initiatives

The Coca-Cola European Partners has announced that cardboard drink packaging will be used in place of plastic shrink-wrap in Great Britain in a bid to offer consumers a more eco-friendly alternative. The new announcement affects the brands entire portfolio of products including Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Lilt and Dr Pepper, which sell more than 30 million packs per year.

The new cardboard drink packaging will be rolling out over the course of the next 18 months and boasts a sustainably sourced profile that's also 100% recyclable.

The packaging change was addresses by Vice President and General Manager for Coca-Cola European Partners GB Leendert den Hollander who said, "We want to make it as easy as possible for consumers to recycle our packaging after they’ve enjoyed our drinks. All our cans are 100% recyclable but we know it is a challenge for consumers to recycle the plastic we use for our multipacks. By replacing shrink-wrap with cardboard, which is collected by virtually every household system in the country, we are eliminating a hard-to-recycle material from our supply chain. Changing all our canning lines over the next 18 months is a complex project. But we believe it is the right thing to do and we would encourage others in the sector to follow our lead.”