Dive Brief:

• For a third consecutive year, the recyclability rate across Coca-Cola’s packaging portfolio held steady at 90% in 2023. That’s according to a newly shared 2023 environmental update document.
• The percentage of recycled PET used in its primary consumer packaging inched up to 17% from 15% in 2022 and 13% in 2021.
• Coca-Cola reported that while it’s “on track” to meet its 2025 goal of making all of its packaging recyclable globally, it is “currently behind plan” to meet its 2030 recycled content and collection goals. These include using at least 50% recycled content in its packaging and collecting or recycling a bottle or can for each one it sells.

Dive Insight:

Coca-Cola laid out recycling and related packaging goals in 2018, part of its “World Without Waste” strategy. In the latest environmental update, the company shared 2023 progress on sustainable packaging design and collection efforts.

Similar to numerous other brand owners, Coca-Cola pointed to business growth and ongoing limitations in recycling infrastructure as challenges. Coca-Cola is a participant in the U.S. Plastics Pact, which recently shifted the target year for multiple plastic packaging transformation goals from 2025 to 2030. Companies have also individually addressed barriers to meeting upcoming goals. Emerging extended producer responsibility policies in the U.S. are also creating pressure.

Coca-Cola aims to reduce its use of virgin plastic from “non-renewable sources” by a cumulative 3 million metric tons from 2020 to 2025. As of 2023, the company reported an overall reduction had not yet occurred “due to business growth.” However, it showed a year-over-year decline in absolute use of virgin plastic by more than 75,000 metric tons. While the total weight of Coca-Cola’s packaging rose from 5.95 million to 5.97 million metric tons in 2023, the total weight of virgin plastic from non-renewable sources fell from 2.91 million to 2.83 million metric tons.

On recyclability, Coca-Cola explained that it aligns with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global Commitment’s definition for considering a package recyclable. Closing the gap there remains a challenge.

“Package design and the use of recycled materials are areas that are ultimately in our control, but costs, quality and new innovations are dynamic factors that affect our ability and timelines for implementation,” the company wrote. Some of the ways it’s sought to improve access to rPET are through a sourcing agreement with Republic Services and by partnering on the Circular Plastics Case Competition.

“The key challenge for us is collection for recycling of beverage packaging, which is the key step to ensure a functioning circular economy,” the company wrote. Coca-Cola said it continues to “explore new collection models or improve existing ones, investing in community infrastructure and engaging policymakers.”

Coca-Cola also shared updated data on the evolution of its packaging mix.

Making reusable packaging a bigger part of its portfolio remains a sticking point. A report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation last year showed that Coca-Cola saw the greatest backslide in reusable plastic use by weight between 2018 and 2022 among major signatories to the Global Commitment, in which brands commit to making all packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable. At the time, Coca-Cola did not address a specific reason for the change.

Over the last few years, Coca-Cola released a longer sustainability report in the month of April. Asked whether it plans to release a similar full-length report this year, Coca-Cola’s communications team said it did not have an update to share at this time.