Governments and companies are working actively around the world to create a circular economy for plastics.
The momentum is strong – the Global Alliance has committed $1 billion to fight plastic waste and is focusing on implementing full solutions that governments and cities can put in place.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF), in Davos, Switzerland, Chief Executive Officer of The Coca-Cola Company, James Quincey, said, “It will take collective action, the consumer goods industry is working in a pre-competitive and collaborative space to make a real impact worldwide. For Coca-Cola and other beverage companies, the issue is water use and packaging.”
Coca-Cola is working to collect all products and reuse them, said Quincey. Just as the industry has delivered products that are easy to buy and use, it now needs to make it easy to take back and reuse products, especially end-of-life plastics. The European mandate that beverages companies collect 90% of all single-use plastic containers by 2025 has lent urgency to their actions, he said.
The strategy has to include giving a value to each bottle and incentivising the consumer to return it. This has been done successfully in some countries – 60% of the company’s bottles worldwide are recovered, recycled and reused, he said – and innovation will make it even more efficient.
Even with existing technology, there have been successes such as in Mexico and South Africa, where recycling has gone from 10% to 70% in a decade. Action on PET plastics is imminent, though other kinds of plastic will take more innovation. From a long-term perspective, the value proposition has to be compelling – recycled PET bottles must become the norm, available at the price of entry.
