Coca-Cola Pushing Sustainable Packaging for Odwalla, Dasani

In a race to out-green the competitor, the Coca-Cola Co. (Atlanta) has announced that its Dasani and Odwalla beverage bottles will soon be available exclusively in PlantBottle packaging-the company’s plant-based packaging.

The Dasani plant bottle uses up to 30% plant-based materials.

The Odwalla bottle uses up to 100% plant-based materials. It has been sized down from 16 fluid ounces to 12 fluid ounces, with nutritional features also experiencing a down-sizing (for what appears to be the same retail price).

Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle is expected to double its 2010 global distribution of 2.5 billion packages with 5 billion in 2011.

“It's our goal to make traditional plastic bottles a thing of the past and ensure that every beverage we produce is available in 100 percent plant-based, fully recyclable packaging,” said Scott Vitters, general manager for Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle packaging platform. “The national launch of Dasani PlantBottle packaging represents an important step toward reducing our carbon footprint, and the up to 100% plant-based, recyclable packaging used for Odwalla is the first of its kind in the beverage industry.”

PlantBottle packaging is made by converting sugar cane into components of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic.