At Swire Coca-Cola, we believe that when the environment in which we operate thrives, so do we. As packaging waste continues to mount, the responsibility to minimise our environmental impact is becoming more urgent. That urgency is driving action across our business as we work towards more sustainable solutions.
In Hong Kong, Swire Coca-Cola HK has devoted time and resources in developing a “circular economy” for plastic bottles in the city. Here, plastic bottles are collected, recycled and remade into new bottles—from bottle to bottle. In fact, more than 50% of the PET used in local production last year was recycled PET (rPET).
Fully operational since 2022, New Life Plastic is Hong Kong’s largest food-grade ready plastics recycling facility.
All of that rPET is now supplied by New Life Plastics, a recycling facility that Swire Coca-Cola helped set up in an endeavour for a circular economy solution for plastic bottles.
Today, New Life Plastics processes around 500 tonnes of plastic a month (about 20 million bottles), collected via reverse vending machines and community collection schemes across Hong Kong, turning them into high-quality rPET flakes.
Explaining what spurred our search for a circular economy solution, Pat Healy, Chair, Swire Coca-Cola, said, “Recycling rates for plastic bottles in Hong Kong have historically been very low versus other comparable cities, with the vast majority going straight to landfill. Consumer attitudes to plastic waste are shifting rapidly around the world and so we decided a few years ago to get ahead of the issue here in Hong Kong. We wanted to seize the initiative and create our own ‘bottle-to-bottle’ solution for the city.”
Packaging innovations
That journey started in 2019, when we first began introducing rPET into our packaging. Today, all 500ml plastic bottles of Coca‑Cola® Original, Coca‑Cola® No Sugar and Coca‑Cola® Plus, as well as bonaqua® Mineralized Water in sizes ranging from 500ml to 1.5L, are made from 100% recycled PET (rPET) and are widely available across the city*.
Reflecting on the challenges we encountered and overcame, Richard Gould, General Manager, Swire Coca-Cola HK, said, “The switch to using rPET for our preformed bottles has been a learning process. To maintain the same quality that we had with virgin plastic, we decided to add the rPET in stages beginning initially with just 25% rPET and mixing that with regular PET. This was to ensure we were able to preserve the same ‘rigidity’ in the finished bottles, which is what keeps in the fizz. As we increased the amount of rPET to 100%, we adjusted our equipment and processes accordingly. So, while the quality of our bottles is exactly the same as before, the overall process is more complex. But the payoff is that the bottle-to-bottle loop stays closed.”
Alfred Weston, General Manager, New Life Plastics shared how our initiatives are creating impact: “Being able to tell this whole story gives people confidence in recycling in Hong Kong, which drives even more recycling. It is a pioneering case of the circular economy for single-use plastic in action in Hong Kong.”
Beyond recycled content, we are exploring innovative ways to reduce packaging waste. Our bonaqua Mineralized Water Label-less bottles, for example, feature etching on the bottle’s surface, instead of using single-use plastic labelling. Additionally, we’re among the first in Asia to use a thinner bottle top, where minor changes to Coca-Cola® plastic bottle necks and caps have made them about 1.5g lighter—that’s 52 tonnes of plastic we’re saving each year.
*Excluding caps and labels
♻️ Closing the Loop in Hong Kong — Locally Recycling Plastic Bottles into New Bottles ♻️
We’re proud to share a meaningful step for Swire Coca-Cola HK. As a system effort with The Coca-Cola Company , we’re the first in the city to turn locally collected plastic bottles into new bottles using local recycling facilities. 🚀
This “close the loop” approach is enabled by Swire Coca-Cola‘s investment in New Life Plastics Ltd, Hong Kong’s first food‑grade‑ready plastic bottle recycling facility. We’ve been rethinking packaging across our brands and increasing the use of recycled material in primary packaging. Now, Coca‑Cola Trademark® 500ml and bonaqua® PET bottles from 550ml to 1.5L — are made entirely from locally collected and recycled PET supplied by New Life Plastics Ltd here in Hong Kong. We’re also investing in collection and community education to make recycling more accessible and to help the facility reach its full potential. 🌱🔁
Please join us: separate and return your used bottles, support neighborhood collection drives, and choose products made with locally recycled materials. Small, steady actions can help Hong Kong reduce packaging waste — one bottle at a time. 🙌
