Freedom Coca-Cola Beverages, a company that bottles Coca-Cola for customers in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New York City, has teamed up with WestRock, a company that makes sustainable paper and packaging solutions, to replace the plastic rings on its multipack bottled drinks with a paperboard carrier.
WestRock’s PETCollar Shield Plus paper-based packaging will be used to package Coca-Cola multipacks at Liberty’s factory in Philadelphia. The 12-ounce and 16.9-ounce products that come in the carriers will be sent all over Liberty’s multi-state area.
Liberty Coca-Cola Beverages plans to have the new paperboard carrier packing system up and running by the summer of 2024. The local bottler started using paperboard packaging for mini-cans in 2022, and the new method will add to that once it is set up. Together, these two packaging methods should help Liberty cut down on plastic use by 200,000 pounds per year.