Coors Light is making a big change for the environment.
On Tuesday, the beer brand announced it would be eliminating plastic rings from its packaging globally, transitioning to fully recyclable and sustainably sourced cardboard-wrap carriers later this year.
It’s not the first time Coors has been on the cutting edge of change. In 1959, the adult beverage giant notably debuted the two-piece recyclable aluminum can, revolutionizing the beverage industry in the process.
Ditching the plastic rings will save 1.7 million pounds of plastic waste annually, the company said in a release, and will make Coors Light the largest beer brand in North America to make the switch over.
courtesy Coors Light
Back in 2017, Molson Coors set ambitious sustainability goals for 2025, making public their desire to have all their packaging 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable (and all their consumer-facing plastic packaging made from at least 30% recycled content).
Last year, the beverage brewer removed plastic rings across all major brands sold in the United Kingdom, including Coors and Carling, transitioning to recyclable cardboard sleeves. They also moved to more sustainable plastic rings in Canada in 2021 as an initial step, but committed on Tuesday to eliminate plastic rings entirely.
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Traditional plastic rings have been known to cause a slew of environmental issues, especially with marine life.
Plastic production, which began six decades ago, has created 8.3 billion metric tons of wasted, researches in the peer-reviewed journalScience Advancesreported in 2019, according toNational Geographic.
The product is so strong, it takes more than 400 years to degrade, they said. And while recycling can help shorten the supply, a whopping 91 percent of plastic doesn’t actually get recycled, the outlet reported.
To celebrate the change and debut the new packaging, Coors Light will launch a sustainable pop-up concept store in NYC modeling as inspiration and a vision for a world with no single-use plastics.
source: people.com
