Coca‑Cola and its strategic bottling partners Coca‑Cola HBC and Coca‑Cola European Partners have today announced that they will begin rolling out the KeelClip™, an innovative, minimalist paperboard packaging solution, on its multipack cans across Europe, with Ireland being one of the first countries to go live.
This move, representing a first for non-alcoholic ready-to-drink (NARTD) industry, underscores the Coca‑Cola system’s commitment to reduce the use of plastic by using solutions that are more sustainable in terms of recyclability and overall environmental footprint as it works towards its global goals for a World Without Waste.
As part of this initiative, Coca‑Cola HBC will remove shrink wrap from all of its can multipacks in all European Union markets by the end of 2021. In total, Coca‑Cola HBC will invest €15 million in KeelClip™ and will begin the roll-out in Ireland and Poland early next year, followed by Austria, Italy, Switzerland and Romania in 2020. All of Coca‑Cola HBC’s European Union markets will have KeelClip™ by the end of 2021.
The KeelClip™ will be used on all can multi-packs of up to eight cans, larger can multi packs will be bound by a carton pack, saving 2,000 tonnes of plastic and 3,000 tonnes of CO2 annually. Two hundred and fifty tonnes of plastic will be saved in Ireland alone as a result of the move.
