Coke's PlantBottle in stores

Coca-Cola announced today that its 500mL and 2L size Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Light and Coca-Cola Zero are now available in the PlantBottle packaging throughout Denmark. Western Canada will receive their green-bottled Cokes as well as Dasani water, Sprite and Fresca beginning December, while the Western side of the US including Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles, will have their turn in January.

Other market launches will soon follow next year. The company plans to produce 2 billion of the PlantBottle PET plastic bottles by the end of 2010.

Somebody asked me before what type of plant-based materials Coca Cola is using in this packaging. Well, the company finally revealed that up to 30% of the PlantBottle's packaging is made from plastic derived from sugar cane and molasses produced in Brazil. Coca-Cola emphasized that the sugar cane used in this process are from rain-fed crops specifically for ethanol used and not for refined sugar (they definitely don't want to hear any uproar about food vs plastic use).

Coca-Cola said its goal is to use non-food, plant-based waste such as wood chips, wheat stalks, etc., to produce their recyclable PET plastic bottles.

In Denmark, the PlantBottle packaging is made of 15% plant-based material and 50% recycled PET, while in the US and Canada, up to 30% of the PET plastic used comes from plants.