Coca-Cola UNITED has announced it has replaced a selection of its best-selling 20-ounce plastic products across its beverage portfolio with bottles made from 100% recycled plastic (rPET)*. This introduction advances the company’s goal of reducing virgin plastic packaging, decreasing carbon emissions and accelerating progress toward its World Without Waste goals.

The 100% recycled plastic bottles already in Coca-Cola UNITED’s market include 12-ounce, 20-ounce and 1-liter DASANI bottles. Twenty-ounce 100% recycled plastic bottles of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke and Cherry Vanilla Coke are available for purchase in Atlanta and will rollout in the remainder of Coca-Cola UNITED’s six-state territory – Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee – in 2024.

One hundred percent recycled plastic bottles require less energy and emit fewer greenhouse gases than bottles comprised of virgin petroleum-based sources. In addition, the new bottles are helping to create and sustain a circular economy, which is critical to ensuring that plastic waste stays out of the environment and is instead continuously recycled and reused.

“As a sustainability leader in the beverage industry, we are committed to building a robust circular economy throughout our bottling territory,” said Tammy Stubbs, Coca-Cola UNITED Corporate Director of Sustainability. “We believe we have a responsibility to the communities in which we operate, and we want to make sure we are doing our part to protect and preserve the places where we live, play and work.”

This innovation contributes to two of The Coca-Cola Company’s World Without Waste goals, an initiative to address global challenges of packaging waste and climate change through effective systemic changes. Goals include:

• Use 50% recycled content in Coca-Cola packaging by 2030
• Reduce Coca-Cola’s use of virgin plastics derived from non-renewable sources by a cumulative 3 million metric tons by 2025

*Excludes cap and label