Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) GB begins production of plastic bottles with attached caps at its manufacturing site in Sidcup following the initial roll-out in Scotland and Edmonton last year.
The new design keeps the cap connected to the bottle after its opened, making it easier to recycle the entire package. A message on the bottle cap also reminds customers of the change with the words: “I am attached to recycle together”.
CCEP says that Sidcup, South-East London will produce 500ml plastic bottles of brands including Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Diet Coke and Fanta Zero, with plans to implement the new design across the entire range of Coca-Cola drinks sold in Great Britain.
The packaging development will help improve recycling rates and prevent waste across its entire portfolio of products, CCEP says.
This is a small change that we hope will have a big impact, ensuring that when consumers recycle our bottles, no cap gets left behind.
CCEP began the changeover to attached caps on 1.5L bottles of Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, Diet Coke and Fanta from its bottling plant in East Kilbride Scotland in May 2022, followed by its 500ml bottles manufactured at Edmonton, North London last September.
Production of the bottles will now be rolled out from the business’ manufacturing site in Sidcup, South-East London and the rest of its sites in the UK by the end of 2024, CCEP says.
When running at full capacity, CCEP says Sidcup will be able to produce 250 million bottles each year to be sold to customers across London and the South East and the move has been enabled by a £1.2 million investment to enable the lines to produce the new packaging format.
CCEP says this follows a £28 million investment made in a new state-of-the-art high-speed canning line at Sidcup, which opened in June 2022. The line is capable of producing 2,000 cans per minute, CCEP says.
Stephen Moorhouse, Vice President and General Manager at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) GB commented: “In becoming the next of our sites to roll out plastic bottles with attached caps, Sidcup is playing a key role in our work in partnership with Coca-Cola, to help collect and recycle a bottle or can for every one we sell by 2030, on our journey towards a World Without Waste.
“This is a small change that we hope will have a big impact, ensuring that when consumers recycle our bottles, no cap gets left behind.”
