Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, one of the world’s leading consumer goods companies, works to reduce virgin fossil-based plastic in its packaging and reduce packaging where it can.

Since 2008, it has reduced the weight of its 500ml PET bottles by 30%, from 28.9g to 19.9g. Its new lighter weight neck design will remove a further 1g of plastic per bottle, totaling 6,800 tonnes of plastic by the end of 2024.

Lightweighting the neck of a carbonated soft drink bottle is a complex technical challenge. The neck needs to perform well under adverse and extreme conditions and retain high safety and quality standards, whilst maintaining the same great consumer drinking experience.

The design of lighter weight necks for carbonated soft drinks bottles.

This new solution was developed in collaboration with The Coca-Cola Company, working closely with multiple bottle and closure suppliers to design and test the innovation.

To reach its lighter neck solution, the company tested over six million bottles under rigorous conditions and despite reducing the neck material, each bottle can still withstand the 11.5 bars of pressure – 5 times that of a car tyre – required to contain the carbonated drink.

Production lines in Germany were the first to convert in Q4 2021 and are being followed by its other European markets over the next two years.

Moreover, its aim is for this design to be accepted as a free to use, open source, industry standard published through the industry association Cetie (International Technical Centre for Bottling). It will then be available for any beverage maker to use in their own bottles.

"This new lighter-weight neck design – a seemingly simple, but highly technical and complex innovation – builds on our longstanding lightweighting programme and helps us further reduce the environmental impact of our packaging," said Geert Marsé, Associate Director Engineering, New Technology and Innovation at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners.

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, one of the world’s leading consumer goods companies, works to reduce virgin fossil-based plastic in its packaging and reduce packaging where it can.

Since 2008, it has reduced the weight of its 500ml PET bottles by 30%, from 28.9g to 19.9g. Its new lighter weight neck design will remove a further 1g of plastic per bottle, totaling 6,800 tonnes of plastic by the end of 2024.

Lightweighting the neck of a carbonated soft drink bottle is a complex technical challenge. The neck needs to perform well under adverse and extreme conditions and retain high safety and quality standards, whilst maintaining the same great consumer drinking experience.

The design of lighter weight necks for carbonated soft drinks bottles.

This new solution was developed in collaboration with The Coca-Cola Company, working closely with multiple bottle and closure suppliers to design and test the innovation.

To reach its lighter neck solution, the company tested over six million bottles under rigorous conditions and despite reducing the neck material, each bottle can still withstand the 11.5 bars of pressure – 5 times that of a car tyre – required to contain the carbonated drink.

Production lines in Germany were the first to convert in Q4 2021 and are being followed by its other European markets over the next two years.

Moreover, its aim is for this design to be accepted as a free to use, open source, industry standard published through the industry association Cetie (International Technical Centre for Bottling). It will then be available for any beverage maker to use in their own bottles.

"This new lighter-weight neck design – a seemingly simple, but highly technical and complex innovation – builds on our longstanding lightweighting programme and helps us further reduce the environmental impact of our packaging," said Geert Marsé, Associate Director Engineering, New Technology and Innovation at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners.