Addis Ababa – Continuing to be the industry trendsetter and to make its plastic packaging more recyclable, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) in Ethiopia has switched Ambo Mineral Water from a blue plastic bottle to a clear plastic bottle.
This is the second product that CCBA in Ethiopia has switched to clear PET (polyethylene phthalate) packaging, following the earlier introduction of clear plastic bottles for Sprite.
Clear PET is easier to recycle so this shift means more plastic bottles can be collected, recycled, and reused to make new bottles. This is part of Coca-Cola’s World Without Waste vision, which aims to collect for recycling the equivalent of every bottle or can we sell, and use 50% recycled content in all our packaging, by 2030.
The clear PET also contributes to economic empowerment as it will have more value for waste recyclers who depend on collecting and selling plastic packaging waste for a living.
Ambo Mineral Water comes in three flavours: Original, Lemon, and Apple.
Ambo Mineral Water was established 90 years ago, in Ambo Town, and became a subsidiary of CCBA in July 2016. The company currently has more than 520 employees and distributes its products throughout the country and to the international market.
Since 2019 CCBA has facilitated the collection of more than 10,000 tons of PET from the environment and supported the setting up of 24 PET collection centres in Ethiopia. These are collection points where plastic waste is stored, sorted by colour, pressed, and sold to recyclers. Through a CCBA initiative of training and equipping women and youth, more than 1,000 aggregators (collectors) have been empowered, supporting the local government’s waste management objectives by making recycling more accessible and increasing the level of collection.
