IIEA and Coca-Cola jointly publish white paper on advancing the development of a circular economy

Making packaging waste a problem of the past is key to building a more sustainable future for our planet. Accelerating the development of the circular economy, which aims to reduce packaging waste to a minimum, is one of most impactful ways to address this challenge.

Over the past number of years Coca-Cola Ireland together with its bottling partner for the island of Ireland, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, has been taking a number of actions to drive change in eliminating plastic waste and make sure that its bottles and cans have more than one life.

A global strategy aimed at transforming the entire Coca-Cola packaging lifecycle is having a significant impact, explains Agnese Filippi, country manager of Coca-Cola: “Through our ambitious World Without Waste Strategy, we aim to collect for recycling or reuse, one bottle or can for every one we sell by 2030.”

Last year, the company reached an important milestone in the design of its packaging, introducing 100 per cent recycled plastic bottles across its soft drinks portfolio in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

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Consumers are seeing other changes too across the beverages they drink. In line with EU legislation, companies this year have introduced attached caps for plastic bottles. Coca-Cola completed this change across its range of soft drinks earlier this year. This change makes it easier to recycle the whole beverage package and helps to ensure that more bottles are collected with their caps attached so the cap does not end up as litter.

The Coca-Cola Foundation has been busy working with other organisations across Ireland to increase plastic packaging collection rates. Together with environmental NGO, Hubbub and local authorities including Dublin City Council and Belfast City Council, the expansion of its #CircleCity programme has helped to foster a stronger culture of on-the go recycling in city centres across the island of Ireland.

However, with no one organisation capable of creating a circular economy for packaging alone, it’s crucial that everyone across industry, Government and beyond works together to close the loop on plastic packaging.

That’s why Coca-Cola Ireland and the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) jointly published a white paper with a series of recommendations aimed at advancing the circular economy for plastic packaging.

The white paper was developed following a recent Real Talk roundtable hosted by the IIEA and Coca-Cola, which brought together policymakers, industry representatives, and civil society for a discussion about how to make the circular economy for packaging a reality across Ireland.

Part of a series of forums facilitated by Coca-Cola across Europe, Real Talk aims to foster open and honest discussions among stakeholders around sustainability goals. The roundtable was the second Real Talk event facilitated by Coca-Cola Ireland focused on packaging circularity.

The white paper, entitled, Closing the Loop: Advancing the Circular Economy for Packaging, recommends the creation of a dedicated senior minister with responsibility for the circular economy to help unlock the emerging opportunities coming from the sector.

It also calls for Government to advance a sectoral approach to policy on the circular economy. Developing individual sectoral strategies focused on plastic packaging waste streams can help to close the gap within different industries and make them more circular.

With significant benefits to be gained from enhancing national recycling and reprocessing capacity, the paper highlights the importance of taking an all-island approach to the circular economy that would allow products to be recycled and reused without leaving the island of Ireland.

Reflecting on the recommendations, Alex White, IIEA director general, highlights the need for everyone to play their part in advancing Ireland’s circular economy journey.

“It is clear the Circular Economy offers enormous potential for Ireland to meet its EU and national climate objectives and allows every single one of us to play our part in making it a success. However, it demands that everyone – industry, government, NGO’s and individuals know, understands, and acts on their responsibilities in this enormous undertaking.”

Fostering collaboration among these diverse groups is an important step to ensuring that packaging is continually recycled and reused.

To support greater cohesion among organisations, the white paper proposes greater information sharing among businesses in the food and drink sector. This can particularly help SMEs who may lack resources or expertise to develop more sustainable packaging.

The paper also notes that promoting a gradual shift to re-usable and refillable containers can help keep materials in use at their highest value and close the packaging loop in the long term.

Looking ahead, Fillipi hopes that the practical and actionable recommendations released in the white paper will be considered widely across society, “The new roundtable white paper provides valuable new insights that will guide industry and Government to close the loop for packaging within Ireland’s food and drink sector.”

With everyone playing their part and working together to achieve change, we can achieve our goal of making packaging waste a problem of the past.

For more information and to read the full report, please see here.