Soft drink supplier Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd. plans to have 70 percent of the bottles it makes in Australia use recycled plastic by the end of the year.
Sydney-based, publicly listed CCA sells Coke products in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Samoa.
"As Australia's biggest beverage company, we have a responsibility to help solve the plastic waste crisis. That is why we will make 70 percent of our plastic bottles entirely from recycled plastic by the end of 2019," Vamsi Mohan Thati, president of CCA subsidiary Coca-Cola Australia, said in a statement.
Thati said it is "a big commitment to recycled plastic — the largest of its kind by a beverage company in Australia — and will significantly reduce the impact of our business on the environment. Coca-Cola's goal is to keep plastic packaging out of our oceans and landfills and instead be used over and over again."
Peter West, CCA's managing director for Australian beverages, said the decision will reduce the amount of new resin the company uses by about 10,000 metric tons a year.
"We've heard the community message loud and clear — unnecessary packaging is unacceptable and we need to do our part to reduce it nationwide," he said.
West said recycled plastic will become the norm in more than two-thirds of CCA's Australian beverage product range. Brands to be bottled in recycled plastic will include soft drinks Coke, Sprite and Fanta; water brands Mount Franklin and Pump; and Fuze Tea.
CCA has a long recycling history, operating Australia's first container deposit program, in the state of South Australia, for 40 years. Today Victoria and Tasmania are the only Australian states without 10 cent deposits on containers.
Globally, Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. has a goal to collect and recycle as many cans and bottles as it sells each year by 2030.