Asahi Beverages says all plastic soft drink bottles it produces in Australia are now made from 100 per cent recycled plastic, excluding caps and labels.
The conversion covers around 350 million bottles a year across brands including Schweppes, Solo and Pepsi. Asahi’s Cool Ridge and Frantelle water bottles and Cottee’s cordial bottles are also made from 100 per cent recycled plastic.
Asahi Beverages Group CEO Amanda Sellers said the transition gives consumers and retailers certainty about the source of the plastic used for the company’s beverage bottles.
“Redesigning our supply chains this way helps secure our supply of plastic bottles into the future and makes financial sense,” Sellers said. “As Australia’s leading beverages company, we are committed to embedding sustainability into our strategy, systems and processes.”
The company said the change had been supported by investment in container deposit schemes and the development of domestic PET recycling capacity.
Asahi is a partner in Circular Plastics Australia (PET), a joint venture with Cleanaway Waste Management, Pact Group and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners. The venture operates PET bottle recycling facilities in Albury, New South Wales, and Altona in Melbourne’s west.
The plants process used PET bottles into recycled material suitable for the manufacture of new beverage bottles, allowing Asahi to source more recycled resin in Australia.
Container deposit schemes operating across every Australian state and territory provide a source of used bottles for the recycling plants. The relatively clean and well-sorted PET collected through these schemes can be returned to bottle manufacturing, supporting bottle-to-bottle recycling.
“Circular Plastics Australia and the establishment of container deposit schemes by governments and the beverage industry have helped ensure we have the raw material required to produce 100 per cent recycled soft drink bottles,” Sellers said.
“By recycling old bottles so that they once again become new bottles, and repeating the process, everyday Australians are helping create a more circular economy.”
The 100 per cent recycled-plastic claim applies to the bottle body and excludes caps and labels.
