The Coca-Cola Company has partnered with Changchun Meihe Science & Technology and Upm to introduce the first 100% plant-based plastic beverage bottle, excluding cap and label. The companies used new technology to create PlantBottle, made from vegetable paraxylene (bPX) and corn sugar. A limited number of around 900 prototype bottles have currently been produced.

Coca-Cola's technical and innovation manager, Nancy Quan, said: "We have worked with our partners for many years to develop the right technologies to create a bottle with 100% plant content, aiming for the most low carbon footprint possible. It is exciting to have reached a point where these technologies finally exist and can be used by the company". The new bottle prototype comes 12 years after Coca-Cola introduced the PlantBottle, the first recyclable PET plastic bottle made with about 30% monoethylene glycol (Meg) produced from sugar cane and 70% terephthalic acid (Pta) derived from petroleum sources.

Dana Breed, Coca-Cola's global R&D director for packaging and sustainability, commented: "Our goal for plant-based pet is to use excess agricultural products to minimize the carbon footprint, so the technologies built with our marketing partners are ideal for driving this strategy forward".