Here’s a quick note about the increasingly mainstream move to non-oil based plastics. Starting this spring, Coca-Cola (Japan) Co. will use PET bottles made using Brazilian bioethanol for the first time in Japan.
The new plastic bottles will be used for three of the company’s products. Up to 30% of the oil-derived materials used in existing bottles will be replaced with bioethanol made from sugarcane, according to the Nikkei Shinbun. The company expects to cut its use of crude oil by 2,045 kilolitres (540,000 gallons) annually by using the plant-based material. Importantly, the new bottles can be recycled at existing facilities and have the strength of the old bottles. Coca-Cola has said that the company plans to produce plastic bottles in the future that are made completely from plant-derived materials. The company has similar plans to introduce the bottles in the Americas this spring.
Coca-Cola has become more and more concerned about the environment recently, especially with regards to water conservation. Peter Senge delves into their work in Necessary Revolution. “After several years of focusing on improved water efficiency within its plants, Coke’s senior management gradually began to realize that it was the overall health of the entire watershed in which a bottling plant operated that really mattered. Coke entered into a five-year partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to build the technical expertise to achieve a new aim of “giving back to nature” the water it extracts and to set up independent verification of progress.” As a beverage maker, clean and available water is obviously a business necessity for Coca-Cola. Businesses are increasingly realizing that their future and fortunes are inexplicably linked to the future and fortunes of the natural world.
- Justin Manger
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