The Coca-Cola Co. has partnered with three biotech companies (Virent, Gevo and Avantium) to accelerate development of the first commercial solutions for next-generation PlantBottle™ packaging made 100% from plant-based materials.

"This is a significant R&D investment in packaging innovation and is the next step toward our vision of creating all of our plastic packaging from responsibly sourced plant-based materials," says Coke VP, Commercial Product Supply, Rick Frazier.

This effort to commercialize a plastic bottle made entirely from plants builds Coke’s introduction of its first generation PlantBottle package, a recyclable PET beverage bottle made partially from plants. Since it was introduced in 2009, Coke has distributed more than 10 billion PlantBottle packages in 20 countries.