ZORAN BOGDANOVIC is the Chief Executive officer, Coca-Cola HBC. In this interview, he speaks on how Environmental sustainability has remained a major focus for Coca-Cola HBC in the last decade. As the world celebrates the 2019 World Environment Day, he examines the efforts of the company to achieve its sustainability agenda. He speaks with Kelechi Ewuzie. Excerpts:
Waste has become a big issue globally especially as it relates to how the planet is being impacted. What step has Coca-Cola HBC done to address it?
I think the amount of waste littering our planet has rightly received a lot of attention recently. I understand the strength of feeling about it because I too get annoyed when I see rubbish strewn in parks, beaches and our oceans.
As a company in the business of bottling, selling and activating beverage brands in 28 markets, we, at Coca-Cola HBC, understand the problem and our role in addressing it. Last year’s World Environment Day theme was “beat plastic pollution.”. One year on, we have this opportunity to reflect on what we have done to date to tackle this and what we can do better in future.
As it stands, materials like plastic constitute a large chunk of waste in the environment. Why don’t you just stop using plastic?
The challenge is that it is currently the best of all packaging materials available – because it is safe, hygienic, durable, flexible, resealable and recyclable in terms of the environmental impact of its production and transport. The problems we are dealing with today arise mainly after use, either with plastic sitting in landfill or left as litter in the environment. However, this doesn’t have to be the case. If we can get enough of the bottles back, with the right level of quality, they become a valuable raw material, as we can recycle and reuse them. And as technology advances, we will get better at doing that.
The company has introduced some initiatives in the area of packaging one of which is ‘World Without Waste’ to address the challenge. Tell us about it and to what extent has this helped to change the narrative?
We are doing a lot and all these are incorporated in our plans. Together, we and our strategic partners, The Coca-Cola Company, are embarking on a comprehensive, multi-year plan that directly addresses issues regarding packaging. This approach – World Without Waste – has a goal to collect and recycle the equivalent of a bottle or can for each one we sell by 2030.
As a step towards this, we at Coca-Cola HBC launched a set of commitments last year, to be achieved by 2025, and designed to ensure that we continue to drive sustainability through our entire business. The idea is to make our consumer packaging 100 percent recyclable by ensuring that we source more of the total PET plastic we use from recycled PET and commits us to help collect the equivalent of 75 percent of the containers used for our drinks.
How far have you gone in this regard?
We have already made some big steps towards these targets. Take for instance, 99 percent of our packaging is now recyclable and we’ve identified opportunities to improve this further by ensuring compatibility between our packaging and existing recycling streams, which are done through the use of the right colorants, additives and sleeves.
In support of our efforts to use more recycled PET (rPET), we have teamed up with third parties to ensure better access to rPET suppliers and technologies. For example, in Austria, we have invested in a PET-to-PET plant, owning 20 percent, together with other Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies, which have supported the delivery of our Austrian water brand Römerquelle in 100 percent rPET bottles this year.
Also we announced a few days ago that from now onwards, every bottle within our Irish water brand, Deep RiverRock, will also be made from 100 percent recycled PET, with further water brands in Switzerland and Romania to follow this year. Additionally, we will increase the percentage of rPET used in our Coca- Cola and Coca-Cola Zero bottles in Switzerland and Austria this year to 50 percent, while continuing to build our capabilities in this area across our portfolio in our 28 markets.
What is the level of success achieved since the system started the recycling and packaging initiative globally?
I can say we have done extremely well. In 2018, we collected a Group-wide average of 45 percent of our packaging for recycling, in collaboration with our partners. In Nigeria, The Coca-Cola System in partnership with the indigenous company, Alkem has been in the forefront of promoting environmental safety. During the period of the partnership, a total figure of 23,000MT of PET was collected.
Also, in Nigeria, the Food and Beverage Alliance (FBRA) where we play a leading role was instituted to advance this cause and so far, the alliance has yielded significant results with a total of 109.11 tons of PET collected between July 2018 and May 2019.
We have launched some great initiatives to increase this further in other markets. For example, we took an active role in Russia last year to establish, together with the industry, the first Packaging Recovery Organisation (RusPRO). In parallel, we supported the initiative ‘Separate with Us’, which seeks to raise awareness around recycling and collect more used packaging.
Additionally, we work with other stakeholders to support various local collection schemes which, depending on local conditions, include Packaging Recovery Organisations and Deposit Return Schemes. We are part of 19 other packaging waste management schemes across our markets and we have a Group-wide policy on packaging waste and recycling, which provides the framework within which our countries operate.
Are you looking at any other alternatives to address the issue?
We know that there is more to be done and we continue to work with universities and other organisations to seek durable alternatives to plastic. For example, one big opportunity is in secondary packaging where we are looking to switch from plastic wraps to carton trays to maintain cans in packs of 4-24 drinks. We are confident that as technology advances, awareness increases and more and better sources of recycled food grade materials are produced, we can raise the bar higher in terms of the sustainability of our packaging and bringing new life to the materials already in circulation.
In addition to our efforts on packaging, our commitments, called “Mission Sustainability 2025”, also seek to further reduce emissions from our operations as well as continuing to focus our minds and actions on water use and stewardship, ingredient sourcing, nutrition, wellness and wellbeing within our organisation and our communities.
