Coca‑Cola Great Britain will switch to using fully recycled plastic. Credit: © The Coca-Cola Company.

The British branch of The Coca-Cola Company has announced plans to use fully recycled plastic content for all its ‘on-the-go’ bottles.

The move, made in partnership with Coca‑Cola Europacific Partners, will cover the beverage company’s entire brand portfolio.

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All Coca‑Cola plastic bottles of 500ml or less sold in the UK will now contain fully recycled plastic content. The bottles previously used 50% recycled plastic content.

The first fully recycled bottles are due to reach store shelves by September.

By using recycled plastics, Coca‑Cola is expected to save 29,000t of virgin plastic a year.

Coca‑Cola Great Britain general manager Jon Woods said: “This announcement marks an important step towards our ambition to remove all non-recycled plastic from our bottles, [as well as] our global aim to help collect and recycle a bottle or can for each one that we sell by 2025.

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“But there is still more that we as an industry can do in order to increase the availability of food-grade recycled plastic available locally in [the UK].

“That’s why we support the introduction of a well-designed Deposit Return Scheme to ensure we collect more bottles and are able to produce more high-quality recycled plastic that can be converted into new bottles.”

UK Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said: “I am delighted to see Coca‑Cola Great Britain taking this significant step to ensure its on-the-go bottles are made from fully recycled plastic.

“We are committed to cracking down on plastic pollution through landmark reforms such as a deposit return scheme for drinks containers and making manufacturers more responsible for their packaging.

“Bold measures of this nature from industry will play a huge role in helping us to achieve this ambition.”

The Coca-Cola Company is also shifting to cardboard packaging across all its multipacks from the existing plastic shrink wrap.

In February, the company’s North American branch introduced a fully recycled PET (rPET) plastic bottle in the US.