One green bottle

ALL-NATURAL PLASTIC:PEPSI is hoping to take the lead over its rival Coke in what has become a competition to produce the greenest drinks bottle.

Coca-Cola initially took the lead in December 2009, when it brought out its PlantBottle, which is made from a material that is 30 per cent plant-based and 70 per cent oil-based plastic.

Now Pepsi is aiming to use all-natural materials to make a bottle that is fully recyclable.

The materials will include switch grass, corn husks and pine bark.

By-products, such as orange and potato peels and oats from PepsiCo’s other food and drink businesses, which include Tropicana and Quaker, could be used to make bottles in the future, the company said.

Pepsi will conduct a pilot production run of its new bottles next year with commercialisation, based on the results, to follow.

The initiative comes only months after the soft drinks maker helped to introduce smart farming and energy efficiency technologies to its suppliers in a bid to help them to save money and reduce CO2.

In the meantime, Coca-Cola is by no means settling for second place in the bottle battle and Scott Vitters, its global director of sustainable packaging, is also working on a 100 per cent ecoplastic bottle.

“We still have more work to do to crack the code . . . but we know it is feasible,” he said recently.