Reusing Materials and Increasing Recycled Content

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Commitment 2020 About This CRS Report A Message from Our Chairman and CEO Our Business at a Glance Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability at CCE CRS Governance CRS in Action

Energy Conservation/Climate Change Overview Understanding Climate Risks Our Energy Conservation/Climate Change Strategy Reducing Our Core Emissions Our Carbon Footprint Our Product Footprints Reducing Emissions from Our Sales and Marketing Equipment Partnerships and Public Policy

Water Stewardship Overview Understanding Our Water Risks Our Water Stewardship Strategy Reducing Our Water Use and Improving Our Efficiency Our Water Footprint Recycling, Reclaiming, and Responsible Treatment Protecting and Replenishing Our Watersheds Partnerships and Public Policy

Sustainable Packaging/Recycling Overview Understanding Our Packaging Challenges Our Sustainable Packaging/Recycling Strategy Reducing Our Packaging Reusing Materials and Increasing Recycled Content Developing Renewable Resources Recycling at Our Facilities Effective Recovery and Consumer Recycling Partnerships and Public Policy

Product Portfolio/Balanced and Active Lifestyle Overview Understanding Our Product Portfolio Challenges Our Product Portfolio Strategy Providing Choice A Selection of New 2009 Products Nutritional Labeling School Beverage Guidelines Implementation Responsible Sales and Marketing Supporting Balanced and Active Lifestyles Partnerships and Public Policy

Diverse and Inclusive Culture Overview Understanding Our Diverse and Inclusive Culture Challenges Our Diverse and Inclusive Culture Strategy Measuring Diversity Building Our Diversity and Inclusion Infrastructure Recruitment Retention and Promotion Safety Providing Equal Opportunities Partnerships and Public Policy

Stakeholder Engagement NGOs and Public-Private Partnerships Employees Our Suppliers Customers Consumers Our Communities Public Policymakers Our Shareowners

Sustainable Packaging/
Recycling Overview

Understanding Our Packaging Challenges

Our Sustainable Packaging/
Recycling Strategy

Reducing Our Packaging

Reusing Materials and Increasing Recycled Content

Developing Renewable Resources

Recycling at Our Facilities

Effective Recovery and Consumer Recycling

Partnerships and Public Policy

Reusing Materials and Increasing Recycled Content

By including recycled content in our packages, we conserve non-renewable resources — while also reducing the energy used in the material’s manufacturing.

Increasing Recycled Aluminum in Our Containers
Aluminum is a material that is easily and quickly recycled and can be reused multiple times without compromising its quality. As a result, it has been recycled for nearly four decades. More than 95 percent of recycled aluminum goes into new beverage cans, which can be back on the shelf in as few as 60 days. Recycled aluminum also uses 95 percent less energy to produce than aluminum from bauxite ore.

Currently, more than 50 percent of the aluminum we use in our cans is made from recycled aluminum, and the technology exists to increase this to nearly 75 percent. We do not yet have the supply needed to achieve this level of recycled content. The opportunity exists to capture more material; currently in the U.S., more than 40 billion cans are still sent to landfills each year. Our work to increase packaging recycling rates seeks to address this issue (see “Effective Recovery and Consumer Recycling”).

Increasing Recycled PET in Our Containers
Recycled PET (rPET) uses 30 percent less energy to produce than virgin PET. As the efficiency of the recycling process (see "How We Recycle Our Plastic Bottles" below) continues to improve, energy and cost savings will continue to grow. However, the market for recycled plastics is not yet as well developed or as cost-efficient as for aluminum. Additionally, unlike aluminum, rPET is hard to process for use in food and beverage containers because of its variable quality. Currently, the quantity of high-quality, food-grade recycled plastic that we need to produce safe bottles is not consistently available. Consequently, we are still working to increase the recycled PET content in our bottles. Although PET recycling rates increased in the U.S. and in Europe in 2009, there still remains a significant gap in the amount of material that can be recycled and the amount of material that actually is recovered and recycled.

In Europe, we reached an average of 10 percent rPET content in our packaging by the end of 2009. However, supply of quality food-grade rPET is still limited, so we continue to test new technologies and materials to improve supply and quality, while also working to improve recovery and recycling rates to make rPET more readily available for use in our products. We intend to achieve 17.5 percent recycled content by the end of 2010 and 25 percent by 2012.

In North America, where the market for recycled PET is less developed than in Europe and there is less quality and cost consistency, our target is to include 10 percent rPET content. However, it has not yet been economically feasible to do so, and in 2009 we used 3.2 percent. In North America, rPET needs to be consistently available and less costly or at cost parity with virgin material in order for it to be a sustainable choice. We are investing in a long-term strategy through our ownership of Coca-Cola Recycling to increase recycling rates, and we are working with The Coca-Cola Company to support their bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. We believe this will drive down the cost of processing rPET and increase our access to food-grade-quality material over time.

Innovative Reuse Projects


	How We Recycle Our Plastic Bottles – click IMAGE to enlarge –

Although our priority is to increase the rPET content of our bottles, we also promote the use of rPET in merchandise and clothing, which helps to stop bottles from going to landfills. We have used rPET to produce apparel for CCE employees, and we have collaborated externally with organizations such as the Atlanta Braves, who now use rPET clothing for their game-day staff. We have also developed rPET merchandise for consumers by creating designer shopping totes in Great Britain and rPET rewards gear at recycling events in North America.

In addition to our traditional beverage containers, we are working to use our secondary packaging in new and innovative ways. The 55-gallon HDPE barrels in which product concentrate is delivered to our production facilities are being reused as recycle bins and rain barrels (see “Providing Rain Barrels”) instead of going to landfills. Since 2008, more than 17,000 barrels have been reused as recycle bins, which can hold up to 300 bottles and cans at any one time. This project has given a new life to more than 500,000 pounds of HDPE. In certain facilities, plastic bags that originally carried bottle caps are being reused as trash and recycling bags, thereby reducing facility costs and waste.

Packaging Trade-offs
rPET vs. Lightweighting: Our work on reducing the environmental impact of our packaging involves a number of trade-offs. We have discovered that while we strive to increase the recycled content of our bottles, it is more difficult to lightweight bottles with high proportions of rPET because more resin is required to maintain structural integrity. In the past, this conflict has meant deciding between using recycled content and creating a lighter bottle. However, during 2009, we developed and tested a new 12-ounce bottle that meets our quality and lightweighting ambitions, and is capable of containing rPET. This lightweighted bottle will be introduced in parts of the U.S. in 2010.

Lightweighting vs. Secondary Packaging: The more we lightweight our bottles and cans, the more secondary packaging may be needed to limit breakage and damage in transit and storage.

As we learn more, we integrate these considerations into our packaging decisions. With the help of our product carbon footprinting calculator (see "Our Product Footprints"), we hope to study the carbon impacts not only of the packaging options themselves (materials used, associated CO₂ emissions, and recycled content), but also of their wider ramifications: how much and what type of secondary packaging they require, how efficiently they can be transported, and how they can be stacked on the shelves. Currently, our packaging approval process includes an evaluation of corporate responsibility and sustainability (CRS) implications. In Europe, we evaluate the impact of the packaging on our CRS-related commitments and stakeholder views.

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