Coca-Cola replaces plastic straws with paper straws in Australia
The new paper straws will be sourced from BioPak and Austraw, and will become available through Amatil's ordering platform to 115,000 outlets across Australia including bars, cafes, quick service restaurants; and grocery, petrol and convenience stores.
The transition will take place over the next two months.
Alison Watkins, group managing director, said: “We’re serious about playing our part in reducing unnecessary plastic packaging. We’ve heard the community message loud and clear - that unnecessary packaging is unacceptable and we all need to work together to reduce the amount entering litter streams, the environment and the oceans.“
A number of other companies have pledged to ban plastic straws from their operations: including Disney, Pernod Ricard, Starbucks, Diageo, and the Scotch Whisky Association.
Wider targets
Coca-Cola Amatil wants all of its packaging – including bottles, cans, plastic wrap and straws – to be fully recyclable by 2025.
It has also set sustainability targets for 2020 that include:
- improving water intensity to no more than 1.95L/L in non-alcoholic beverages; and target a 25% improvement in water efficiency for alcoholic beverages
- reducing the carbon footprint of drinks by 25%
- using at least 60% renewable or low-carbon energy throughout its operations
- ‘develop a business case’ for an average of 50% rPET in plastic containers such as soft drink bottles
- screen 80% of supplier spend using responsible sourcing criteria.
Coca-Cola Amatil manufactures and distributes Coca-Cola brands in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Samoa.
