Coca-Cola Advances World Without Waste with New Packaging and 'Recycle Me' Label

Attentive fans of Coca-Cola in China may have spotted a fresh look on bottles they recently purchased.

The Coca-Cola Company has announced a phased rollout of newly packaged Coca-Cola products in China, marking another worldwide packaging upgrade since the 2016 launch of its One Brand global marketing strategy.

Reimagining the flagship product's packaging is also the company's latest step toward its World Without Waste goal.

Publicly available details show the new packs carry a Recycle Me message and create a conversational feel with the bottle, prompting consumers to recycle beverage bottles. Here are the key points.

Coca-Cola Zero Sugar gets a noticeable visual update

According to Coca-Cola, the redesigned packaging applies to classic Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, across PET bottles and cans in various sizes.

Coca-Cola packaging refresh

The company's 2020 ESG report shows that by retail value, the Coca-Cola trademark series linked to these products is the largest contributor to the beverage giant, which generates USD 33 billion in annual revenue, accounting for nearly 50%.

Overall, the new design follows a minimalist direction.

The refresh simplifies the look by removing some visual elements, including the ribbon, moving the Coca-Cola logo upward, and leaving selected areas of the bottle body blank.

Coca-Cola describes this subtractive approach as a tribute to its century-old classic packaging. The company noted that the contour bottle introduced in 1915 remains a timeless icon in world packaging history, recognizable even when shattered on the ground, and that a truly resonant brand may not require complex information or ornate design.

For colors, classic Coca-Cola keeps its red background with a white logo, while Coca-Cola Zero Sugar uses a red background with a black logo.

Notably, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar's new color scheme is one of the most immediately visible adjustments.

The previous version highlighted Zero Sugar with a black arc carrying the words zero sugar at the top, while retaining the classic red-and-white base.

The new pack changes the overall palette, making Zero Sugar more distinct from classic Coca-Cola and more noticeable on shelves and in other retail settings.

In addition, Zero Sugar packaging places 0 sugar and 0 fat messages in prominent positions, reflecting the beverage giant's response to health-oriented consumer trends.

Reference materials show Coca-Cola Zero Sugar has already joined the company's billion-dollar brand group and has maintained strong growth in China in recent years.

More creative attempts

Another highlight of the packaging change is the addition of sustainable packaging content.

Publicly available information shows that

the new packaging adds Recycle Me, with the Chinese character for return designed as a two-arrow symbol, encouraging bottle recycling in a more intuitive and interactive way and supporting sustainable development.

Bottle packaging can serve as a treasure billboard: it requires no extra media spend, travels with the product into more places, and reaches a reliable consumer base. Using packaging design as a vehicle for sustainability is therefore a strong direction.

In its announcement, Coca-Cola said it hopes to use product packaging, a globally influential medium, to further communicate the initiative of beverage bottle circular regeneration. This is another creative global practice under its World Without Waste sustainable packaging strategy. New Coca-Cola packaging bearing the sustainable packaging mark has also been rolled out in global markets including the United States, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Next, Coca-Cola, with its large beverage brand portfolio, will extend the design to several billion-dollar brands.

The Recycle Me mark is expected to appear on Sprite, Fanta, and Schweppes as well, with sequential changes in China at different paces across cities.

Coca-Cola China said this today.

These moves together represent the Coca-Cola Company's latest progress toward its World Without Waste goal.

As early as 2018, the company introduced its World Without Waste global sustainable packaging vision. It committed that by 2025, the Coca-Cola system would use 100% recyclable packaging globally, and that by 2030, it would help collect and recycle an equivalent amount of the packaging used for products it sells, while using more than 50% recycled materials in product packaging worldwide.

To encourage more people to join PET bottle recycling, Coca-Cola China has made various attempts. Since 2019, it has worked with community subdistricts, international designers, and material partners to develop the Recycle Me, See You Later circular regeneration themed public awareness exhibition, demonstrating the value of recycling and regenerating beverage bottles.

For example, Coca-Cola China runs a monthly beverage bottle recycling-for-drinks exchange in Shanghai's Wuliqiao Subdistrict and Changshou Road Subdistrict. Collected bottles go to designated recycling and processing organizations, are made into public facilities such as sun umbrellas, and return to the community, creating a closed recycling loop for beverage bottles at community level.

Coca-Cola China's circular regeneration themed public awareness exhibition

The green development of plastic packaging has long been a priority in environmental governance and a key issue for beverage companies.

Dr. Wang Jun, technical vice president of the Plastics Recycling Branch of the China Synthetic Resin Association (CPRRA), said in Coca-Cola's announcement that recycled PET (rPET) offers both economic value and environmental benefits. Thanks to China's well-functioning recycling system and complete industrial and supply chains, rPET has been widely used in apparel and home textiles, further unlocking the value of PET material. Beverage bottle circularity requires coordination across the entire value chain and society, with manufacturers, consumers, recyclers, and other parties participating together. Coca-Cola's Recycle Me mark is a positive measure encouraging consumer participation in environmental protection and can play a leading and driving role in building a closed loop for plastics.

Coca-Cola China said today that beyond the Recycle Me label on bottles, it will continue public education and communication on beverage bottle recycling and regeneration. Through creative attempts such as themed exhibitions with partners, community-based closed-loop recycling models, and rPET derivative products, the company aims to advance its World Without Waste goal.

Source: China Packaging Network (pack.cn), original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-378241.html