You can now return 2-litre plastic Coke bottles for a R9 deposit

Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa announced it’s rolling out returnable 2-litre plastic bottles to more parts of the country after a successful pilot in the Eastern Cape last year.

JOHANNESBURG – Returning glass fizzy drink bottles for a small deposit for cash has been around for decades in South Africa and now – finally – you can do the same with plastic bottles, while helping to save the environment.

Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa (CCBSA) announced it’s rolling out returnable 2-litre plastic bottles to more parts of the country after a successful pilot in the Eastern Cape last year.

Returnable bottles will now also be available in Northern Gauteng, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. More provinces will be added over a five-year period.

Each returnable bottle has the word ‘RETURNABLE’ printed on a small green strip on the front side of the bottle label.

For each bottle you return, you get a R9 deposit, meaning if it costs R20, you’ll ultimately only pay R11.

Once a bottle is returned to CCBSA, it goes on a looped journey to be cleaned as per Coca-Cola’s stringent measures and requirements, then is refilled to start its next lifecycle. When the bottle reaches the end of its useable lifecycle, it joins the recycling value chain and is repurposed into another PET (polyethylene terephthalate) product.

“The consumer response to the new 2-litre returnable PET bottles has been overwhelmingly positive. We have seen customers in the Eastern Cape opting to switch over to purchasing the returnable bottles and returning them after consumption. After each bottle reaches the end of its useable lifecycle, it joins a regional manufacturing value chain which ultimately means less pollution in the environment,” said CCBSA MD Velaphi Ratshefola.

“We’re committed to increasing recycled material in our packaging and ensuring more packaging is collected and recycled. The roll-out of returnable PET plastic bottles is another way we can support a circular economy in South Africa.”

“Companies are looking for new ways to address packaging and reduce waste, and consumers are demanding it,” says Steve Yeh, a project manager at Häagen-Dazs, the Nestlé-owned ice cream brand. The brand committed major resources to developing new packaging for the pilot: a novel stainless steel ice cream canister that’s designed to keep ice cream cold longer. It then can be sent back, sterilized in a state-of-the-art cleaning system, and reused. (It also looks a lot nicer on your counter.)

The system is designed to be simple for consumers—in theory, nearly as easy as buying something in a disposable package and throwing that package in the trash. Online orders are delivered in a reusable tote, and when a customer has an empty container, it goes back in the tote, the customer schedules a pickup, the packages are returned for reuse, and the customer gets back a deposit that they paid for the package (or, if they’ve reordered the product, the deposit stays in an account and they don’t pay it again). Despite using heavier packages, more transportation, and cleaning, it has a lower carbon footprint than single-use packaging. And it keeps packages out of landfills and the ocean.

“We all know that recycling alone will not be enough,” says Sara Wingstrand, who leads the innovation team at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, an organization focused on the circular economy.