Coke Recycles What Should Be a Layup for Bottlers
Aaron Perlut | Partner

About a decade ago, we partnered with an emerging brand from one of the world’s largest beer brewers. The brand was on a strong trajectory, and we were both proud and excited about the partnership. 

The brand had a robust baseline of assets in that it was a terrific tasting beer, had a unique flavor profile, owned a good overall reputation and featured a recognizable logo. We believed there was an amazing opportunity to build on the beer’s brand equity, reach new customers and grow product sales.

Our team developed a brand narrative with one idea we were certain had enormous potential: Take ownership of recycling by making it a signature part of the brand mission. The concept included  a public-facing commitment to recycling a percentage of the solid waste the beer brand created, developing a national beer bottle recycling program, and placing recycling bins shaped like the brand’s logo at strategic urban event-based facilities such as stadiums, concert halls, bars and parks. 

Our belief was that an increasing number of consumers young-and-old cared about sustainability and corporate social responsibility, and with the growing competition in the beer space, throwing down the gauntlet on recycling would broaden its appeal and help drive sales. Plus, few if any bottlers had a strong foothold in recycling, and thus the effort could create an important point of differentiation.

When we presented the brand strategy, the recycling concept was DOA. The client told us that one of the beer titan’s flagship brands “owned” recycling within the portfolio. We found this to be, well, perplexing. Indeed, to this day—more than a decade later—we have not seen any semblance of a public-facing recycling effort by this or any beer brand.

I was reminded of this the other day as I was sipping a Coke Zero and noticed the green stripe across the label that read “I’m a 100% Recycled Bottle.” 

Last year, Coke introduced all new versions of 20-ounce Coke Zero, Diet Coke and Coca-Cola brand bottles made from 100% recycled plastic. The bottler had introduced similar bottles for Dasani in some states in 2021 (and nationwide in 2022), changed the color of Sprite bottles from green to clear to make them easier to recycle, and focused on improving collection systems to increase recycling rates prior. All of it is part of Coke’s 2030 goal of making half of the company’s portfolio produced from recycled material.

It leads me to wonder why no other major bottler has done something like this. Why hasn’t Budweiser or Miller Lite launched a major recycling initiative? Pepsi has a program, but I’ve never seen it leverage point of sale, which tells me Pepsico doesn’t really take the effort seriously.

What they are all missing is that consumers care about these efforts. A 2020 McKinsey survey found more than 60 percent of consumers said they would pay more for a product with sustainable packaging; while a recent study by NielsenIQ found that 78 percent of U.S. consumers say that a sustainable lifestyle is important to them.

Despite consumer support, we’ve seen few sustainability efforts from CPG giants despite a clear reputational benefit that the data demonstrates will drive sales. Amongst bottlers in particular, while other brands see recycling as a revenue drag—Coke clearly sees an opportunity. It’s a layup. 

Taking even small steps towards sustainability better-positions any brand with younger, more environmentally conscious consumers who care about corporate social responsibility, thus facilitating sales and ultimately driving revenue growth.

It made sense a decade ago. It makes even more sense now. Here’s hoping I don’t have to recycle this blog post a decade from now when we’re still in this position. 

Aaron Perlut
Aaron Perlut is a cofounding partner of Elasticity with some 30 years of diverse experience in journalism, public relations and digital marketing. He is a former senior reputation management counselor at Omnicom-company FleishmanHillard, as well as a communications executive for two of the nation's largest energy companies. Throughout his career, Perlut has counseled a range of organizations---Fortune 500s, state governments, professional sports franchises, economic development authorities, well-funded startups and large non-profits---helping manage reputation and market brands across diverse channels in an evolving media environment.
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