As part of its ‘World without Waste’ initiative, Coca-Cola India is optimistic about achieving 100 per cent recovery and recycling of post-consumer packaging, mainly bottles and cans, in the next 2-3 years.
The ‘World Without Waste’ is a global initiative under which the company aims to collect and recycle every bottle or can that it sells globally by 2030.
Recycling post-consumer packaging is one of the three focus areas of Coca-Cola Company’s ESG (Environment, Sustainability, and Governance) priorities. The other two are related to water and sustainable agriculture.
Coca-Cola India Vice President Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability Devyani Rajya Laxmi Rana said that the company’s focus is on recovery and recycling of bottles and cans, and not Multi-Layered Plastic (MLP). MLP, a type of plastic used in the packaging of food items such as chips, biscuits, chocolates, and other snacks, is the most difficult to recycle.
According to Rajesh Ayapilla, its Director (CSR and Sustainability for India and South West Asia), approximately 62,825 tonnes of post-consumer packaging will be recovered in 2020.The company has refilled or helped recover 36 per cent of bottles and cans, equivalent to what has been introduced into the marketplace in India.
The company, through its focus on three fundamental goals—design, collect, and partner—is laying emphasis on the entire packaging lifecycle—from how bottles and cans are designed and produced to how they are recycled and repurposed. The company by design is making packaging more sustainable, including redesigning lightweight packaging, maximizing use of recycled content and introducing innovative packaging.
Coca-Cola, along with its partners, is working to develop sustainable, community-led programmes for integrated plastic waste management and promote efficient recycling in India by endorsing segregation of waste at source, streamlining collection mechanisms and helping build infrastructure to recycle post-consumer packaging into value-added products.
The company has partnered with multiple agencies like Saahas, Chintan, American India Foundation, Mahila Sewa Trust (SEWA), and Hasiru Dala Foundations for setting up self-sustaining waste management infrastructure and models, bringing about citizenship awareness and movements, improving livelihoods of waste workers, and women workers associated with the programmes by providing social security and dignity of labour, he said.
With these efforts, the beverage giant is hopeful of achieving 100 per cent collection of bottles and cans for recycling in the next 2-3 years. That is our internal target. In 2020, we will have achieved 36 percent.