Log In Sign Up

Search for any green Service

Find green products from around the world in one place

Window cleaning

Singapore Safety Glass

Tag: coca-cola

Absolut Vodka in Paper Bottles

Posted on by dishanth
Absolut Vodka in Paper Bottles

Over 50 years ago, we were introduced to the concept of box wine – a wine that came in a box with a collapsible bag inside. The invention gained popularity because it was cheaper than other wines and spirits. Adding the integral tap in the bag made it easier to pour a glass of wine and store it. From an environmental standpoint, boxed wine is recyclable and easier to transport. Although glass is recyclable, it requires a lot of energy to produce and transport.

Switching to cardboard is less energy-intensive to produce and is a lot lighter in comparison to transport. Although boxed wine has been associated with being a cheaper quality wine, the quality has improved significantly over the years, with many winemakers packaging their products in boxes.

If wine can be packaged more sustainably, what about other types of alcohol? Swedish company Absolut Vodka wants to switch from glass bottles to paper bottles. As part of a pilot project, Absolut has made bottles out of 57% wood fibres certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. To prevent the liquid from leaking through, the bottles contain an integrated moisture barrier made from recycled plastic.

This pilot project is part of a collaboration with Paboco and the Pioneer Community. Paboco is a paper bottle company working towards creating the world’s first 100% bio-based and recyclable paper bottle. The paper bottle is recyclable as paper packaging and can be designed to hold many different products, from soda to sun location. The company has partnered with L’Oreal, the Coca-Cola Company, Procter & Gamble and many others to help introduce smarter and more sustainable packaging solutions into more significant markets.

Paboco is no stranger to packaging alcohol in paper bottles. They have been successful with beer company Carlsberg with their Fibre Bottle, made out of plant-based PEF polymer lining. The material is compatible with plastic recycling systems and can degrade in nature. The PEF, which is made out of natural raw materials, protects the taste and fizziness of the beer, and the outer shell helps to keep the beer colder for longer compared to cans or glass bottles.

Absolut Vodka has been testing these paper bottles for over a decade, and they are finally launching 500-millilitre paper bottles in select Tesco stores in Manchester, in the UK. The city of Manchester was chosen as a testing site because it had the recycling infrastructure to handle the bottles. Absolut also found that Manchester had higher household recycling rates than any other region in the UK.

Much like how wine boxes are lighter and less energy-intensive to transport, Absolut will calculate the carbon footprint of the paper bottles, which will be significantly lighter than their traditional glass bottles. The company is also collecting feedback from consumers, retailers and distributors and will use their findings to make necessary adjustments. They will also be working on developing ways to make the bottles from more than 57% paper and achieve a 100% paper bottle target.

While glass is a better option and can be used infinitely, compared to plastic bottles, it is pretty costly to recycle. Glass can only be recycled in furnaces that use high energy to reach high heat, increasing pollution. The switch to paper bottles could have a significant impact on the emission that comes from the food and drink industry. While Absolut Vodka is only one of many alcohol companies, it could be the inspiration needed to make the switch. We might see our liquor stores go from clanky, heavy glass bottles to lightweight paper ones in the near future.

 

 

 

 

Source  Happy Eco News

Can AI Recycling Robots Solve the Waste Crisis?

Posted on by dishanth
Can AI Recycling Robots Solve the Waste Crisis?

Our global waste crisis is enormous, with billions of tons of trash generated each year, and much of it ending up in landfills instead of being recycled. A major reason recycling rates remain low is actually the extreme difficulty of efficiently sorting and separating the complex jumble of materials in our waste streams. But what if AI recycling robots could take over this dull, dirty, and dangerous work from human sorters? That’s the ambitious vision of EverestLabs, a startup aiming to totally transform recycling as we know it.

 

AI Recycling Robots Faster, Smarter

EverestLabs was founded in 2020 by a team of engineers and technologists from Apple, Google, NVIDIA, and other leading tech companies. They’re on a mission to bring the power of artificial intelligence, computer vision, and advanced robotics to tackle the massive challenges facing global recycling efforts. Imagine conveyor belts loaded with trash of all types, with sophisticated robotic arms directed by AI rapidly grabbing items and precisely sorting them into different bins for recycling.

RecycleOS is an AI recycling robot operating system for recycling plants that uses vision technology, robotics, and data analytics to improve the efficiency and accuracy of recycling. It uses 3D depth-sensing cameras to identify recyclable materials like plastics, metals, and paper. The system then uses robotic arms to sort the materials into different bins. RecycleOS also uses data analytics to track the system’s performance and identify improvement areas.

RecycleOS is designed to be more efficient and accurate than traditional manual sorting methods. It is being used in a variety of places, including recycling centers, manufacturing plants, and retail stores. The company has also partnered with a number of major companies, such as Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble, to deploy AI recycling robots.

  • Coca-Cola: EverestLabs and Coca-Cola have partnered to deploy RecycleOS at a number of Coca-Cola bottling plants in the United States. The goal of the partnership is to improve the efficiency and accuracy of recycling at Coca-Cola’s plants.
  • Procter & Gamble: EverestLabs and Procter & Gamble have partnered to deploy RecycleOS at a number of Procter & Gamble manufacturing plants in the United States. The partnership aims to improve the efficiency and accuracy of recycling at Procter & Gamble’s plants.

In addition to Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble, EverestLabs has also partnered with a number of other major companies, including:

  • PepsiCo
  • Kraft Heinz
  • Walmart
  • Target
  • Unilever

It may sound futuristic, but EverestLabs AI recycling robots are already built and working. As prototypes, they can sort the waste at speeds no human worker could match. The AI recycling robot system can consistently achieve over 90% accuracy across dozens of material categories like plastics, paper, electronics, and metals. That leads to much purer recycled material streams that retain their value.

 

Potentially Huge Business Scale

EverestLabs is running pilot projects with major waste haulers and recyclers to prove the AI recycling robot solution. They’ve also raised $16 million in venture funding to hire engineers and scientists across AI, computer vision, and robotics disciplines to turn the technology into commercial-ready products. The founders envision their automated recycling concept eventually operating 24/7 at massive scales, processing waste volumes human sorters could never handle.

Adoption faces challenges, from high upfront costs to reluctance by old-school waste companies to change. But the sheer size of the opportunity makes EverestLabs hard to ignore. The environmental payoffs would be enormous if advanced intelligent automation could boost global recycling rates and economics. Untold millions of tons of usable materials could be recovered rather than dumped or incinerated.

As urbanization intensifies globally, solving the waste crisis is increasingly urgent. EverestLabs and other startups applying cutting-edge tech see huge potential for robots and AI algorithms to handle the waste sorting that humans simply cannot physically achieve. Autonomous recycling may even protect thousands of vulnerable workers from hazardous manual labor. The future remains uncertain, but companies like EverestLabs show how emerging technologies could positively disrupt even our most entrenched industrial systems.

 

 

 

 

Source   Happy Eco News

Milk & More to trial doorstep deliveries of refilled Coca-Cola

Posted on by dishanth
Milk & More to trial doorstep deliveries of refilled Coca-Cola

From next Monday (5 June), Milk & More customers in South London and some parts of the South will be able to buy one-litre bottles of Coke Zero which they will then be instructed to rinse and leave on their doorstep for collection.

The collected bottles will be sent off for washing and refilling; they can be refilled up to 20 times before they need to be recycled.

Milk & More already offers reusable glass bottles for several of its own-brand lines including milk, water, fruit juices and soft drinks. In total, it delivers 80 million refillable bottles each year already.

Milk & More’s chief executive Patrick Muller said: “Our customers want to be more sustainable, but they are busy people and need simple solutions to help them, so we are confident that they will welcome this trial as it offers them exactly the same service as they already have with Milk & More.”

The business is working with Europe’s largest Coca-Cola bottler, CCEP, on the new trial. It will run for a minimum of eight weeks and the hope is to reach 100,000 customers.

CCEP’s senior sustainability manager Jo Padwick said the trials will allow for the gathering of “valuable insights into how consumers respond to return-based trials in comparison to recycling”.

The Coca-Cola Company, globally, is notably aiming for 25% of its beverage sales to be housed in reusable or returnable packaging by 2030. It announced this target last year.

The Milk & More trials are being touted as the only way, at present, for UK-based customers to receive refillable Coca-Cola to their homes.

Pre-filled reusable Coca-Cola Company products have previously been offered via Tesco and Terracycle, under the Loop scheme. However, Tesco stopped offering Loop services last July.

 

 

 

 

Source  edie

Sustainability initiatives at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners

Posted on by dishanth
Sustainability initiatives at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners

Coca-Cola’s iconic bottles are internationally recognised, but Coca-Cola Europacific Partners aims to implement a more sustainable purpose for used bottles
For Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, Lucia Karina is the Public Affairs, Communication and Sustainability Director. In her role, Karina is passionate about implementing sustainable strategies, utilising green energy and working together with stakeholders to support local communities.

“We embed our sustainability initiatives into our activities,” explains Karina. “Not only for the supply chain section, but also in the commercial side. So this forward strategy consists of water management, sustainable packaging, the climate, our society and the supply chain. We are also looking at how we can reduce our sugar content in our drinks.”

The company is also working to implement a reuse or recycle policy, to minimise the volume of Coca-Cola products going to landfill.

“We are removing unnecessary and hard-to-recycle packaging. We want to make sure that 100% of our packaging actually is recyclable.”

Coca-Cola has increased the recycled content in its packaging to reduce the use of new material, including plastic made from fossil-fuels. In Indonesia, the company joined with Dynapack Asia in a joint venture and built a PET recycling facility, with a capacity for 25,000 tonnes every year.

“In Indonesia we also built the social foundation Mahija Parahita Nusantara. This is a non-profit foundation and we are trying to work to improve the lives and welfare of the waste pickers that work in these communities. We want to ensure that we increase the quality of the collection for the feedstock of the Amandina Bumi Nusantara recycling PET.”

 

 

 

Source Sustainability

Coca-Cola bottlers aim to develop technology to capture CO2 and convert it into sugar

Posted on by dishanth
Coca-Cola bottlers aim to develop technology to capture CO2 and convert it into sugar

In 2020, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) committed to reducing net emissions across its value chain by 30% by 2030, before bringing them to net-zero by 2040. At the time, CCEP said in a statement that it is ready to go further and faster after reducing value chain emissions by 30.5% since 2010.

Going further and faster has seen its Ventures arm (CCEP Ventures) collaborate with the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) to explore novel methods of capturing carbon and then using it as a feedstock.

Speaking exclusively with edie, Craig Twyford, Head of CCEP Ventures, stated that this project (which will originally last three years) would enable the firm to support scientists and experts to hopefully deliver a viable, onsite method to capture carbon emissions from facilities and then use them in products in a bid to drive down emissions.

“I think this is incredibly exciting,” Twyford told edie. “It’s a big picture idea, but if we start thinking of carbon as not just a problem but also as a feedstock, then there’s a lot of things we can start to change.

“The way I envisage it, but obviously there’s many twists and turns along the way, is that we’d ideally be able to fit direct air capture units to each of our sites that draws down the carbon in a cost-effective and efficient way. The biggest impact will probably be if we can use this to carbonate our drinks and produce sugar, but it could have impact elsewhere.”

 

Sugar focus

CCEP is financing the three-year research programme that will be led by the Peidong Yang Research Group at the University of California, Berkeley, which will first and foremost focus on the production of sugar from onsite carbon at an industrial scale. CCEP and Twyford believe that lab-scale prototypes could be the first step in making raw materials and packaging more sustainable and with a lower carbon footprint in the long run.

Sugarcane is not only the source of most of the world’s sugar, but is also the most produced food crop in the world. Sugarcane production has increased by more than 10% in the last 10 years with the crop now being utilised outside of the food space, namely in the creation of biofuels and controversial bioplastics.

Research from food analytics company Spoonshots found that the average water footprint used to produce 1kg of refined sugar is the equivalent of two years of drinking water for one person. Additionally, firms like British Sugar have calculated that 0.6g of CO2 equivalent is produced for every gram of sugar made.

As the population continues to grow, land becomes more contested and forests burned down for agricultural processes, it is clear that innovating the agri-sector is key to combatting key megatrends like land loss and degradation, deforestation and the climate crisis.

For companies like CCEP, agricultural ingredients, including sugar, can account for around 25% of the firm’s overall carbon footprint. Tackling emissions associated with agri-ingredients will be key to reaching net-zero.

Twyford points out that this innovation could also assist in reducing “some of the largest carbon contributors” across the value chain, namely by saving on raw and finite materials for things like packaging – by turning carbon into PET plastic and reducing the need for crude oil – and fuel and reducing transportation and logistics costs due to the onsite aspect of the project.

 

 

Supply chain innovation

Given that the majority of CCEP’s Scope 3 emissions are in the supply chain, the company is aiming to help all of its strategic suppliers set science-based targets and transition to 100% renewable electricity. For ingredient and packaging-related emissions, the company will accelerate plans relating to sustainable agriculture and 100% recycled plastics. Some life-cycle analyses have found that soft drinks bottles made using 100% post-consumer-recycled plastic generate 40% less CO2e than virgin plastic bottles.

Twyford stated that this innovation would likely have the biggest impact on its Scope 3 aspirations, but that there were still plenty of challenges to overcome.

“There are some hurdles but it think [the research team] can overcome them,” Twyford said. “The challenges are around selectivity and efficiency and creating the right glucose. So the first three years will be seeing how these challenges can be overcome. But [the team] has a roadmap for this and 2025 will come around quickly, at which point we’ll start asking ‘where do we go from here’?”

While the success of the initial research hinges on overcoming barriers, the long-term ambition for this project is scalability. Twyford believes that having an organisation as large as CCEP, which serves 1.75 million customers across 29 countries, will create some confidence in the carbon capture market which, to date, has looked at larger projects between a cluster of organisations and sites.

Crucially, CCEP believes that this vision could be shared across the industry, helping other firms to decarbonise at a pace on the road to net-zero.

“Everyone needs to learn off everyone,” Twyford said. “So if these direct air capture systems can really be used to help us view carbon as a valuable feedstock then this can be a solution that will help a lot of industries. I think these types of solutions will be industry-wide eventually.

“For us, we think that if we can take on a leadership role to back this, then others may look at us and view this as something that is serious and can be scaled.”

CCEP is not the only firm with this view. Carpet manufacturer, Interface, for example i forging ahead with its Climate Take Back strategy, which is also filled to the brim with moonshot goals. It focuses on “bringing carbon home and reversing climate change” and to “stop seeing carbon as the enemy, and start using it as a resource”. Indeed, many industrial firms have switched their mindset to stop “demonising” carbon and instead realise the potential that is could have as a key material building block.

Twyford ends by reiterating that this will not see the company become sugar manufacturers and that any success will require the expertise of its existing supply chain to help share advice and best practice.

To this end, earlier in the week, CCEP confirmed the creation of a sustainability-linked supply chain finance programme that will be operated by specialist food and agri-bank Rabobank.

The new finance programme will reward suppliers that make improvements on sustainability across the business and will feature sustainability-linked KPIs that, if met, will create discounts against the initial funding rate.

 

 

Source Edie

Business giants team up to chart course to zero-emission HGVs

Posted on by dishanth
Business giants team up to chart course to zero-emission HGVs

The new collaborative initiative, called HGVZero, is being overseen by Innovation Gateway. It will follow a similar model to Innovation Gateway’s EVZero scheme which was launched earlier this year in response to the need to scale electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure across the UK, but will be pan-European rather than national.

HGVZero’s founding members are supermarket giant Tesco, beverage bottler Coca-Cola European Partners, logistics providers Eddie Stobart and XPO, and parcel delivery service DPD.

Collaboratively, representatives from these businesses will map EV charging infrastructure across geographies where they operate, identifying gaps. They will also map refuelling infrastructure for alternatively-fuelled HGVs.

As a rule of thumb, the heavier the vehicle is, the more challenging it is to electrify. Few businesses have adopted pure electric HGVs to date and, going forward, a mix of technologies will likely be used in the private sector, including hybrid vehicles and those powered using alternative fuels like hydrogen and biomethane. HGVZero members will also be tasked with mapping the innovation landscape for HGVs.

Both mapping activities are set to be completed within six months. The maps will inform a joint action plan, outlining how players across the HGV value chain will tackle shared challenges relating to zero-emission HGV technologies and related infrastructure.

“HGV decarbonisation is a systemic critical challenge that we must address innovatively and as an industry.” Said XPO Logistics’ environmental and sustainability lead for the UK and Ireland, Dr Nicholas Head. “That’s why we are particularly excited to be working with a diverse group of organisations, including our haulage peers and global shippers, to develop joint solutions that will further accelerate the sustainability of HGV transport.”

In the UK, where Innovation Gateway is headquartered, the Government is aiming to end the sale of new petrol and diesel HGVs in phases through to 2040. The Transport Decarbonisation Plan last year proposed a ban on sales for ICE vehicles weighing 3.5-26 tonnes by 2035 and those weighing more than 26 tonnes by 2040.

These commitments intend to support the 2050 net-zero target. Road transport has been the UK’s highest emitting sector since 2016 and HGVs account for 18% of the UK’s transport-related greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company

In related news, Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company (CMBC) has confirmed that two fully electric HGVs will be added to its delivery fleet by the end of the month. One vehicle will be based out of its Thurrock depot and the other out of Cardiff. Both of these depots have had charging points installed, served using renewable electricity.

The vehicles, E-Tech D Wide models from Renault Trucks, will serve as a proof-of-concept trial for the brewer. They will replace two diesel vehicles in the first instance and, if the trial is successful, CMBC will look to add more of them to its 270-strong HGV fleet.

 

Image: CMBC

 

CMBC estimates that the vehicles will, between them, travel up to 19,000 miles per year with zero tailpipe emissions. Aside from contributing to its broader 1.5C-aligned climate efforts, the brewer sees benefits from the vehicles in terms of avoiding London Ultra-Low Emission Zone charges, reducing noise and reducing air pollution.

CBMC’s vice president for customer supply chain Sarah Perry said: “With the trucks capable of travelling up to 150 kilometres on a single charge, the urbanised areas of Cardiff and Essex are the ideal routes to test the potential of electric vehicles in our logistics network. This launch is potentially transformational to us as a brewer and logistics operator, but also in terms of helping pubs to build back greener after the pandemic.”

 

 

Source Edie

Coca-Cola’s largest European bottler targets net-zero by 2040

Posted on by dishanth
Coca-Cola’s largest European bottler targets net-zero by 2040

The company is among the cohort of We Mean Business Coalition members who first committed to aligning with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C trajectory at COP25 in Madrid last winter. According to the IPCC, global net emissions must be halved by 2030 and reach zero by 2050 if we are to have the best chance of capping the global temperature increase.

CCEP’s new commitments cover emissions from Scope 1 (direct), Scope 2 (power-related) and Scope 3 (indirect) sources. The company’s main emissions sources aside from operations are ingredients, packaging, transportation and refrigeration.

Given that the majority of the firm’s Scope 3 emissions are in the supply chain, the company is aiming to help all of its strategic suppliers set science-based targets and transition to 100% renewable electricity. For ingredient and packaging-related emissions, the company will accelerate plans relating to sustainable agriculture and 100% recycled plastics. Some life-cycle analyses have found that soft drinks bottles made using 100% post-consumer-recycled plastic generate 40% less CO2e than virgin plastic bottles.

CCEP has earmarked €250m, to be spent over a three-year period, to develop its immediate action plan for meeting its new climate goals. Money will be used to support suppliers, improve efficiency and accelerate R&D around packaging materials.

The company is prioritising reductions over offsetting and has had its targets approved by the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi). However, it will be investing in some verified carbon credits “where essential”, prioritising nature-based carbon removal.

CCEP said in a statement that it is ready to go further and faster after reducing value chain emissions by 30.5% since 2010. Its new targets are all baselined for 2019 and the company will develop new interim goals and projects in the coming years.

“We have a responsibility to the communities we serve to keep taking this action on climate,” CCEP’s chief executive Damian Gammell said.

“We know it will be a long and challenging journey – there are no quick fixes or silver bullets – but we are determined to drive this change as fast as we can and to play our part in helping and influencing others. We’ve made significant progress so far, and looking ahead, we will continue to help lead the transition to a low carbon future by putting environmental impact at the heart our decision-making.”

Net-zero movement

As of September, some 1,540 businesses globally had set net-zero targets of some kind, up from 500 in December 2019. That is according to research from Data-Driven EnviroLab and the NewClimate Institute.

Since then, new net-zero announcements have been made by companies including Uber, Japan Tobacco International, Diageo, Vodafone, KPMG and Tesco.

But for all the welcome noise on climate leadership in the private sector, there are concerns about how many net-zero targets will be met. A recent poll of 120 sustainability professionals at different companies, conducted by South Pole, found that just one in ten firms with a net-zero vision has an approved science-based targets framework to back it up.

 

 

By Sarah George

Source Edie

Wetlands not Wastelands: Coca-Cola and Earthwatch announce a $600k partnership to tackle marine pollution in remote Australia

Posted on by dishanth
Wetlands not Wastelands: Coca-Cola and Earthwatch announce a $600k partnership to tackle marine pollution in remote Australia

The Coca-Cola Australia Foundation (CCAF) and Earthwatch Australia have announced a $600,000 partnership to deliver a first-of-its-kind marine pollution and wetland management program in the Lower Gulf of Carpentaria.

Together with Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation (CLCAC) and recycling experts Plastic Collective, Earthwatch will train 20 CLCAC Indigenous Land and Environment Rangers and 30 community volunteers to help deliver the ‘Wetlands not Wastelands’ program over the next three years.

Malcolm Hudson, Chair of the CCAF, said the program was a stand-out in the Foundation’s competitive grant process to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14 ‘Life Below Water’.

“Driven by science and delivered by the local community, this program will trial a sustainable, community-based solution to managing and recycling marine pollution in remote regions. Once this model is proven, it could potentially be replicated in many other regional and remote locations in Australia and around the world.”

Pollution is a key threat to the vast wetland system of the Lower Gulf of Carpentaria, which has little to no recycling infrastructure and has been hotspot for seasonal tourism. The area is also home to thousands of unique species including dugongs, sea turtles, migratory shorebirds and important mangrove and salt marsh wetlands that play a significant role in sequestering carbon.

Cassandra Nichols, CEO of Earthwatch Australia, said the community-led program will help reduce marine pollution risks, as well as recover and upcycle plastic waste into valuable products, creating an economic opportunity for the community.

“Thanks to this generous grant from the Coca-Cola Australia Foundation, ‘Wetlands not Wastelands’ will come to life and allow us to work directly with the CLCAC Rangers to develop a marine pollution management plan and a report card for future action to conserve this region’s precious habitat.

“We will also be able to introduce two Plastic Collective Shruders, or plastic recycling machines, into the communities of Burketown and Normanton. The Rangers will be trained in how to use the Shruders as well as how to turn plastic waste into valuable commercial products, creating a social enterprise that further supports the local community.”

The program will span hundreds of kilometres of the expansive Gulf region, from the Northern Territory border in the west, to the Staaten River on Cape York in the east. The program will also enlist the support of 30 local volunteers who will be virtually trained in citizen science methods to increase the scale of the program.

Murrandoo Yanner, CLCAC Director and Traditional Owner, said the project presents an exciting opportunity for the local community.

 

 

Source: