Coca-Cola bottler adopts paperboard multipack carrier by Westrock in US first

04 Jun 2024 --- Westrock has equipped Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages, a local Coca-Cola bottler serving Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York City in the US, with paperboard packaging carriers to replace multipack plastic rings. 

Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages has completed the installation of new equipment and technology to begin packaging multipack bottled beverages in recyclable paperboard carriers.

The new packaging, which will replace an estimated 200,000 pounds of plastic rings annually, has started to appear on store shelves.

Westrock, which recently merged with Smurfit Kappa, designed the substrate, technology and packaging machine used to implement PET Collar Shield Plus into beverage packaging lines. The local bottler installed the line at its Philadelphia production facility earlier this year.

Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages says it is the first beverage distributor in the world to implement this specific type of paperboard packaging. 

Plastic out, paper in
The durable, easy-to-hold paper-based carriers are being used to package Coca-Cola’s top brands in multipacks for 12-ounce and 16.9-ounce beverages.

Local officials and business and community stakeholders joined the local bottler to unveil the new technology.The paperboard carriers are expected to replace around 200,000 pounds of plastic rings every year.

“This is an opportunity for Philadelphia to showcase Liberty’s efforts and to demonstrate that our city is committed to doing its part to better our environment for today and into the future,” says Councilmember Quetcy Lozada, Philadelphia City Council, 7th District.

Liberty was also the first bottler in the US to replace plastic rings for mini-cans and among the first Coca-Cola bottlers to produce and distribute bottles made from 100% recycled plastic (excluding cap and label) in the country.

It has installed a sustainable compactor that reduces the bottler’s carbon footprint and processes large volumes of full plastic and aluminum containers for recycling. 

In addition, Liberty last year broke ground on its Quadgeneration plant at its Elmsford, New York facility. Once complete, the local bottler will generate its own electricity, heat, cooling and recovery of carbon dioxide for beverage use.

Edited by Joshua Poole