Coca-Cola bottles are seen at a store in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, on Jan. 28, 2025.
Firdous Nazir | Nurphoto | Getty Photos
Coca-Cola will shift extra of its packaging from aluminum to plastic bottles if President Donald Trump implements his newest wave of tariffs, CEO James Quincey stated Tuesday.
“Because it pertains to our methods round making certain affordability and making certain shopper demand, if one bundle suffers some improve in enter prices, we proceed to produce other packaging choices that may permit us to compete within the affordability area,” Quincey stated on the corporate’s earnings convention name. “For instance, if aluminum cans change into costlier, we will put extra emphasis on PET [plastic] bottles, and so on.,” Quincey added.
Trump on Monday raised tariffs on all aluminum and metal imports to 25% from 10%, beginning subsequent month. The motion is broadly seen as taking intention at China, though the U.S. imports little metal instantly from the nation.
Quincey downplayed the monetary hit for Coca-Cola from the tariffs, though he stated on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Avenue” that the corporate buys some aluminum from Canada.
“I feel we’re in peril of exaggerating the affect of the 25% improve within the aluminum value relative to the whole system,” Quincey stated on the convention name. “It is not insignificant, but it surely’s not going to seriously change a multibillion-dollar U.S. enterprise, and packaging is barely a small part of the whole value construction,” the CEO added.
Along with shifting to extra plastic packaging, Coca-Cola also can blunt the consequences of duties on its enterprise by discovering home aluminum sources and growing the value for purchasers, Quincey added.
Aluminum is usually costlier than plastic, however it is usually infinitely recyclable and one of the crucial generally recycled supplies. Lately, the corporate has shifted to including extra aluminum packaging choices, akin to canned Dasani and Smartwater.
PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, is a light-weight plastic that may be simply recycled however is recycled at a decrease charge than aluminum. The recycling charge of PET bottles and jars was 29.1% in 2018, in contrast with the recycling charge of aluminum beer and tender drink cans at 50.4% in the identical yr, in response to knowledge from the Environmental Safety Company.
At the same time as Coca-Cola has tried to make use of extra aluminum, the corporate has been named the world’s worst polluter by Greenpeace for six straight years for its single-use plastic utilization.
Simply two months in the past, Coca-Cola slashed its sustainability targets. The beverage big now goals to make use of 35% to 40% recycled materials in packaging by 2035, down from its prior goal of fifty% recycled materials by 2030. The corporate additionally stated it needs to “guarantee the gathering” of 70% to 75% of the equal variety of bottles and cans it introduces yearly, somewhat than recycling the plastic equal of each bottle it makes use of by 2030.
