Coca‑Cola wants your rubbish
Branded Recycle Zones encourage Coca‑Cola consumers to recycle cans and bottles
At Coca‑Cola our packaging innovation teams continually explore new ways to reduce the amount of material and energy used in our packaging, without sacrificing quality. All of our major packages have seen significant material reductions since their initial introductions.
We are now focused on increasing the amount of recycled materials in our packaging, especially our PET plastic bottles. The recovery of used packaging is an important step in meeting this goal, which is why Coca‑Cola is the first drinks company to have introduced branded Recycle Zones across the country to help consumers recycle more when they're out and about.
We've worked with organisations such as WRAP and Recoup to make sure the Recycle Zones are as effective as possible. These zones give consumers a convenient set of recycling units to put their empty bottles and cans into when they're on the go. The bottles and cans will then be collected for recycling.
Our biggest Recycle Zone is at Manchester Airport, which has around 150 units. In total there are currently over 80 Recycle Zones placed everywhere from the London Eye and Center Parcs to Exeter University and Crossgates Shopping Centre, Leeds. For more information, please visit the Recycle Zone website.
What happens to my plastic bottle after I've recycled it?
- The bottle gets picked up, squashed as small as possible and taken to a reprocessing plant
- There, the bottle is spun in a special machine to shake off dirt and a magnet removes any metal
- All the bottles are sorted by colour and type
- The sorted bottles are ground into flakes, and the flakes are then sieved through to get rid of any discoloured or contaminated bits
- These tiny pieces of plastic can then be made into a new bottle, ready for use. Or they might end up as something else - garden furniture, perhaps, or a duvet
