Biotechnology in commercial front with new Coca-cola R&D venture

To accelerate the development of PET bottles totally made out of plant, the Coca-Cola Company declared a partnership worth multi-million dollar with different biotechnology companies. Upholding the industry's recycle requirement, Coca-Cola Company made this partnership with Virent, Gevo and Avantium to produce 100% environment friendly pet bottles. This partnership will encourage biotechnology companies from all over the world to come up with technologies that can replace typical plastic material that vastly used for packaging.

Currently available first generation Plantbottle in the market from the time of introduction in 2009 has 30% biobased material. With a mixture of 30% mono-ethylene glycol made of 100% biobased material and 70% of pure terephthalic acid as source material (http://www.packagedesignmag.com/content/coke-seeds-path-a-100-plant-based-bottle), these bottles meets the industry requirement for recyclability. With 10 billion plantbottle sold in the earth from 2009, Coca-cola estimates over 100,000 metric ton CO2 emission equivalent carbon footprint drop-off. Intended bottles made out of 100% biobased material will help Coca-cola in uplifting ecological footprint of products.

VP of Coca-Cola Company Rick Frazier explains the significance of this research and development related investment to bring bio-based material from libratory in large scale commercial packaging. As a environmental responsibility, Coca-cola company hopes to use total plant-base materials for packaging requirement with the help of Virent, Gevo and Avantium.