Imagine a world where each and every piece of packaging produced and sold is also collected and recycled after use – a World Without Waste. That’s the stated goal of Coca-Cola: they aim to collect and recycle a bottle or can for every one they sell by 2030, while also substantially reducing their use of virgin packaging materials, and only using packaging materials that are 100% recyclable.
It will take continuing investment in innovation, exploration of different technologies and, crucially, partnership and collaboration to get there. This time they approached Paboco, the company most thoroughly examining the possibilities offered by the paper bottle.
The Danish Paboco launched its innovation community called the Paboco Pioneer Community last year, with Coca-Cola as one of the founding members. They are working to create the world’s first fully bio-based and recyclable paper bottle for packaging soft drinks, beauty products, and other everyday consumer products.
The prototype of the recyclable paper bottle has already been created, but a lot of work still must be done. The first-generation paper bottle still contains some plastic.