ATLANTA—The Coca-Cola Company announced multimillion dollar partnership agreements with three biotechnology companies to accelerate development of the first commercial solutions for next-generation PlantBottle™ packaging made 100% from plant-based materials.
Agreements with Virent, Gevo and Avantium—industry leaders in developing plant-based alternatives to materials traditionally made from fossil fuels and other non-renewable resources—were signed following 2-year analysis of different technologies by Coca-Cola’s R&D team and technical advisory board.
“While the technology to make bio-based materials in a lab has been available for years, we believe Virent, Gevo and Avantium are companies that possess technologies that have high potential for creating them on a global commercial scale within the next few years," said Rick Frazier, Vice President, Commercial Product Supply, The Coca-Cola Company. “This is a significant R&D investment in packaging innovation and is the next step toward our vision of creating all of our plastic packaging from responsibly sourced plant-based materials."
The new partnership agreements will help Coca-Cola support its long-term commitments through sustainable practices in sourcing and packaging supply. While Virent, Gevo and Avantium will follow their own route to make bio-based materials, all materials will be developed in line with Coca-Cola and industry recycling requirements.
Coca-Colas’ first generation PlantBottle™ packaging is the only fully recyclable PET bottle made with up to 30% plant-based material available today. PlantBottle™ packaging is made up of two components—MEG (mono-ethylene glycol), which makes up 30% of the PET, and is already made from plant materials, and PTA (purified terephthalic acid), which makes up the other 70%. In this next step, PTA will be replaced with plant-based materials.
