Say Goodbye to Sprite's Green Bottles

Coca-Cola says it's switching to clear plastic to boost recycling efforts
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 28, 2022 5:03 AM CDT
Updated Jul 28, 2022 6:51 AM CDT
Coca-Cola Is Ditching Sprite's Green Bottles
A worker inspects bottles of Sprite at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Indonesia.   (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim, File)

Sprite's green plastic bottles will soon be a thing of the past. Coca-Cola says it's changing the packaging of Sprite and other beverages, including Fresca, to clear plastic so it can step up recycling, CNN reports. The green polyethylene terephthalate—PET—currently used in Sprite bottles can be recycled, but unlike clear PET, it can't be made into new bottles, reports CBS. The company says it has also revamped the Sprite logo to provide a "consistent look and voice around the world," but the label will remain green.

Coca-Cola is working with plastic reprocessing company R3CYCLE to improve its recycling. "Taking colors out of bottles improves the quality of the recycled material," says Julian Ochoa, the firm's CEO. "When recycled, clear PET Sprite bottles can be remade into bottles, helping drive a circular economy for plastic." Coca-Cola says the Sprite switch will happen Aug. 1 and other brands will follow in the coming months. The company says 41 countries switched from green to clear Sprite bottles last year and another 70 will make the change this year, Food & Wine reports.

Most Dasani bottles in the US will soon be made of 100% recycled plastic as part of an initiative "projected to save more than 20 million pounds of new plastic, compared to 2019," Coca-Cola said in a statement Wednesday. The company said demand for recycled PET plastic currently exceeds supply and the Sprite transition will help increase availability. (Competition for recycled plastic has been heating up.)

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