Coca-Cola has announced its ambitious plans to tackle climate change by making its bottle caps from carbon dioxide emissions. As one of the largest consumers of plastic globally, the beverage giant aims to reduce its carbon footprint and reach net-zero by 2040.
In collaboration with Swansea University, Coca-Cola will fund a three-year trial to explore the feasibility of using CO2 extracted from the atmosphere in the production of its iconic bottle caps. This groundbreaking initiative demonstrates the company’s commitment to sustainability and underscores the urgent need to find innovative solutions to the climate crisis.
To make the new Coca-Cola bottle caps, the company will attempt to use carbon dioxide emissions to produce ethylene, a vital ingredient in the production of flexible plastics.
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Professor Andreoli, an industrial chemist, explains that this process takes place within a small black electrode, where by passing an electric charge through a mixture of CO2 and water, the electrode produces ethylene.
Representatives from Coca-Cola have shared that in order to tackle the challenge of becoming carbon-neutral by 2040, the company is on a path of exploring radical options for reducing the carbon footprint generated by its operations. Furthermore, they are testing the possibility of incorporating harmful emissions from the atmosphere into their production processes.
One such example of an alternative decarbonization path is the Coca-Cola-funded research at the University of California, Berkeley, that aims to test transforming CO2 into an artificial sugar. This new technology could potentially provide a novel approach to addressing the issue of carbon emissions while also creating a useful product.
By transforming greenhouse gas emissions into valuable materials, Coca-Cola is taking a significant step towards reducing its reliance on fossil fuels and single-use plastics. If successful, this trial could pave the way for large-scale adoption of CO2-based manufacturing processes in the future, leading to a more sustainable and environmentally friendly packaging industry.
Read more: Coca-Cola Partners To Turn Captured CO2 Into Sugar
