2024 marked an important transition for Coca Cola, towards its sustainability goal aimed at reducing PET use by 2025. According to a company’s note, this shift will cut the annual use of virgin PET by the equivalent of nearly 800 million bottles in 2025, compared to 2024. This project representing a major step in lowering the environmental impact while preserving the durability and functionality of the bottle.
The new initiative will lightweight from 21 g. to 18.5 g. the Coca-Cola Company’s sparkling brands, in the U.S. and Canada. Coca Cola redesigned its small PET bottles shapes minimizing the weight of its beverage portfolio, thanks to a thinner design that did not alter the height or overall diameter of the packaging.
In the ever-evolving plastic environment, the new bottles have an impact on recycling facilities, which must adapt to recent challenges; in fact, lighter bottles are easily to be damaged during the mechanical recycling process.
AMUT technology is ready to tackle the revamped packaging and properly satisfies the customers’ needs.
recycling
In particular, equipment such as the patented Delabeller and the wet grinder, have already been designed and tested, achieving more than 95% efficiency in the de-labelling of light weight bottles. The new grinder design is aimed at processing a high bottle flow and reducing fine particles.
It is worth mentioning the Envicco project in Thailand, where AMUT equipment is processing up to about 45,000-50,000 lightweight bottles per ton in the past three years. A remarkable case history, with high percentages of PVC and non-PVC shrinkable sleeves, featuring a double De-Labeller configuration.
In the first stage the AMUT De-Labeller performs a dry cleaning action able to detach most of the shrink sleeves labels while the second unit is a wet De-Labeller working as cold pre-washing, allowing to remove contaminants, without damaging the bottles and avoiding to lose the bottles necks during the process. The whole AMUT fully automated system is engineered to comply with the most demanding bottle-tobottle applications, ensuring the removal of all types of labels, preservation of bottle necks and bodies and low operational costs.