Coca-Cola and Heinz Announce Landmark Partnership to Expand Use of Innovative PlantBottle Packaging

The Coca-Cola Company and H.J. Heinz Company yesterday, February 23, announced a strategic partnership that enables Heinz to produce its ketchup bottles using Coca-Cola’s breakthrough PlantBottle™ packaging. The PET plastic bottles are made partially from plants and have a lower reliance on non-renewable resources compared with traditional PET plastic bottles.

PlantBottle packaging looks, feels and functions just like traditional PET plastic, and remains fully recyclable. The only difference is that up to 30 percent of the material is made from plants. The plant material is produced through an innovative process that turns natural sugars found in plants into a key component for PET plastic. Currently, PlantBottle is made using sugarcane ethanol from Brazil, the only source widely recognized by thought leaders globally for its unique environmental and social performance.

Heinz’s adoption of the PlantBottle technology will be the biggest change to its iconic ketchup bottles since they first introduced plastic in 1983. Heinz will launch PlantBottle in all 20-ounce ketchup bottles in June with ‘talking labels’ asking, ‘GUESS WHAT MY BOTTLE IS MADE OF?’ Packaging will be identified by a special logo and on-pack messages. Switching to PlantBottle is another important step in Heinz’s global sustainability initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, solid waste, water consumption and energy usage at least 20 percent by 2015.

Coca-Cola first launched PlantBottle in 2009 on brands that include Coke^®, Sprite^®,Fresca^®, iLOHAS^®, Sokenbicha^® and DASANI^® water. By using PlantBottle packaging across multiple brands, the Company is able to significantly reduce their dependence on non-renewable resources. Heinz will introduce 120 million PlantBottle packages in 2011 and The Coca-Cola Company will use more than 5 billion during the same time. In time, plastic Heinz Ketchup bottles globally will be made from PlantBottle packaging and by 2020, Coca-Cola’s goal is to transition all of its plastic packaging to PlantBottle packaging.