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Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) continues its push to improve manufacturing sustainability after announcing it was on track to source 60 per cent of its energy from low-carbon and renewables by next year.

According to CCA’s 2018 Sustainability Report released this week, the company sources 56.2 per cent of its energy from low-carbon on renewables, including wind, solar and natural gas.

This sustainability initiative follows on from CCA’s announcements earlier in the year to replace single-use plastic straws with paper straws, as well as using 100 per cent recycled plastics for Mount Franklin water bottles and investing $7m in solar panels across its sites in NSW, Qld and WA in 2018.

CCA group managing director Alison Watkins said a further expansion of solar would help the company reach its 60 per cent target by 2020.

“We’re rolling out more renewable energy at our facilities, with new solar panels this year at Amatil facilities in Eastern Creek, Richlands and Kewdale in Australia, and Cibitung in Indonesia,” said Watkins.

“We’ve focused on natural gas, solar and wind, but we’re open to other technologies and will look at how these can be incorporated in our operations.

“We’re keen to support sustainability but renewables also have to make commercial sense. That’s why we’re pleased that the bulk of our low-carbon and renewable energy was sourced at a market competitive price versus traditional power.”

CCA is further supporting the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation (APCO) 2025 National Packaging Targets, which includes:

  • 100% of Australian packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable;
  • 70% of plastic packaging to be recycled or composted;
  • 30% average recycled content to be included across all packaging; and
  • Problematic and unnecessary single-use plastic packaging to be phased out through design, innovation or introduction of alternatives.

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