Coca-Cola Announces Changes to Its Iconic Bottle Design It Has Kept for Decades

Mar 27, 2025

Coca-Cola’s new “Recycle Me Again” bottles promise a major shift toward sustainability, but not everything is as green as it seems. Hidden environmental risks and abandoned commitments cast doubt on the company’s true impact.

The next time you grab a bottle of Coca-Cola, you might notice a small but bold message: “Recycle Me Again.” It’s more than just branding—it’s part of a broader sustainability push that aims to cut tens of millions of pounds of plastic waste. But is this a real step forward, or just another corporate greenwashing effort?

The Coca-Cola Company, the world’s largest soft-drink producer, has transitioned to using 100% recycled plastic in all 20-ounce bottles of its core brands, including Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero.

The initiative, first launched in 2021 across California, New York, and Texas, is expected to save 80 million pounds of new plastic—equivalent to about 2 billion bottles.

Coca-Cola is the first major sparkling beverage brand in the U.S. to make this shift. Its Dasani water brand has also moved to 100% recycled plastic for its 20-ounce, 1-liter, and 1.5-liter bottles since 2022.

At first glance, this initiative seems like a major win for sustainability. But there’s a catch: plastic can only be recycled once or twice before it degrades and becomes unusable. Unlike glass bottles or aluminum cans, which can be infinitely recycled, plastic has a much shorter lifecycle.

Despite its recycled packaging, Coca-Cola remains the world’s largest producer of branded plastic waste, according to environmental groups. That means that even with this initiative, millions of plastic bottles will still end up in landfills, oceans, or incinerators.

The company promotes this initiative as part of its “World Without Waste” strategy, a campaign focused on improving recycling rates and reducing plastic waste. However, Coca-Cola has a history of backtracking on sustainability pledges.

For example, it previously announced that 25% of its packaging would be reusable by 2030, but reports suggest that it has quietly abandoned that goal. This raises concerns about how committed Coca-Cola truly is to long-term environmental change.

Beyond its plastic footprint, Coca-Cola faces other sustainability controversies. A 2024 French study found that simply opening a plastic drink bottle—such as a liter bottle of Coca-Cola—can release microplastic particles into the beverage. The long-term health effects of ingesting these particles remain unclear, but early research suggests potential risks.

The company also received backlash for using artificial intelligence (AI) in its 2024 Christmas ad campaign. While AI-generated content may seem harmless, it’s incredibly energy-intensive—creating 1,000 AI-generated images emits as much carbon dioxide as driving a gas-powered car for four miles. For a company already facing scrutiny over its environmental impact, this decision added fuel to the fire.

Coca-Cola’s move to 100% recycled plastic for some bottle sizes is a step in the right direction, but it’s far from a game-changer. Given its massive role in global plastic pollution and its shifting sustainability promises, critics argue that this initiative is more about image than impact.

If Coca-Cola truly wants to lead on sustainability, it may need to go beyond plastic and fully commit to reusable packaging, glass, or aluminum alternatives. Until then, the debate over whether this is real progress or clever marketing will continue.