Coca-Cola India Aims at 100% Recycling of Bottles

The Coca-Cola Company said on Monday that its business in India hopes to achieve 100% recovery and recycling of used packages, primarily bottles, and cans, over the next 2-3 years as part of the World Without Waste Initiative. The waste-free world is a global initiative that allows companies to collect and recycle all bottles or sell them worldwide by 2030.

Recycling used packages is one of the three priority areas of Coca-Cola Company's environmental, sustainable, and governance (ESG) priorities. The other two are related to water and sustainable agriculture.

Devyani Rajya Laxmi Rana, vice president of public relations, communications, and sustainability at Coca-Cola India, spoke with PTI and said the company's focus is on the collection and recycling of bottles and cans rather than multilayer plastic (MLP).

The company is making packaging more sustainable by redesigning lightweight packages, maximizing the use of recycled content, and introducing innovative packages.

The company has partnered with multiple agencies such as Saahas, Chintan, American India Foundation, Mahila Sewa Trust (SEWA), and Hasiru Dala Foundations to build a self-sufficient waste management infrastructure and model to promote awareness and civic movement, improving the livelihoods of waste workers, and women workers associated with the programs by providing social security and dignity of labor.