 Oct. 6, 2009 - Coke has shaved 5% off the weight of its beverage cans, in a move the company says could save 15,000 tons of aluminum each year.
The company has achieved the weight reduction in their cans by using thinner sheets of metal. According to Coke, the metal in the new cans is now less than a tenth of a millimeter thick -- about as thick as a human hair, and is as durable as the previous style can.
Already, 6.5 billion of the new, light-weight cans have hit store shelves throughout the E.U.
The U.K. government’s Waste and Recycling Action Program (WRAP) says the can’s new specification will have knock-on effects for distributors, retailers, as well as for the environment. "Smarter packaging can deliver not only tangible cost savings to the supply chain, but also environmental benefits that help Europe tackle the joint challenges of climate change and resource efficiency,” says WRAP’s director of retail, Richard Swannell.
Coke is changing the way it looks at the packaging of its products, saying it no longer wants to see it as waste but as a valuable resource. In the U.S. the company has increased its recycling goal from just its plastic bottles to now recycling or reusing 100% of soda cans it sells nationally, and has pledged $60 million to build new recycling plants. |
