Design

Coca-Cola is to launch a new lightweight 500ml PET bottle just weeks after signing the Courtauld Commitment to reduce packaging waste.

The company has developed the 24g bottle, which will replace a 26g version, in conjunction with PET supplier Amcor, and will invest more than £150,000 to modify its bottling facilities at Sidcup and Wakefield.

Peter Skelton, project manager at the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap), which leads the Courtauld Commitment, said the plans demonstrated that packaging can be "optimised without affecting customer perception, product quality or safety".

The new bottle will cut the amount of PET packaging Coca-Cola uses by more than 700 tonnes a year.

The first bottles will be produced at the firm's Sidcup facility in September, with Wakefield following in early 2008.

The two plants will produce more than 350 million 24g bottles per year for brands that include Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Fanta, Sprite and Lilt.