In a first-of-its-kind initiative, leading beverages major Coca-Cola India has partnered with 10-Min grocery delivery service, Zepto, for a unique ‘return and recycle’ initiative for PET bottles.

The joint initiative seeks to establish an organized process of collection of PET bottles with 100 per cent traceability, to ensure effective plastic waste management.

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The initiative is an extension of The Coca-Cola Company’s global goal of creating a World Without Waste. In line with this vision, the Company’s partnership with Zepto in India intends to create a circular economy for plastic by connecting all participants in the PET recycling value chain

. Leveraging the Zepto two-wheeler distribution network, Coca-Cola India seeks to ‘collect back’ empty PET bottles of any brand from consumers.

Commenting on the initiative, Greishma Singh, Vice President, Customer & Commercial Leadership, India & South West Asia Operating Unit, The Coca-Cola Company, said, “At Coca-Cola, we are continuously leveraging our scale and reach across markets to reduce waste pollution and achieve our sustainability goals. This innovative partnership with Zepto provides a great platform to generate awareness, influence behavior, and encourage consumers to recycle PET bottles in a super convenient way from the comfort of their homes. We hope this partnership will enhance consumers’ inclusion in the path towards a more sustainable, better, shared future.”

Consumers can access the ‘Return PET Bottles’ feature on the Zepto app, where they can opt to return up to four empty PET bottles across any brand. The bottles will then be collected by Zepto riders during delivery.

The initiative has been launched in select locations in Mumbai and will further be scaled to other markets in India soon. Zepto has been leading a similar effort for paper bag collection on its app where customers have the option to help reuse bags by returning them to the delivery partner.

Vinay Dhanani, Chief Operating Officer at Zepto, said, “Zepto users have an eco-conscious mindset where they have consistently expressed their interest and passion towards sustainability. Being a future-first brand and firm believer in protecting the health of the environment, we see an opportunity in leveraging our expertise to contribute to environment-friendly initiatives. On the back of our last-mile delivery network in Mumbai, we have been able to seamlessly integrate with this initiative that ensures effective plastic waste management. As one of India’s youngest and fastest-growing startups, Zepto is excited to be a part of a collective change with Coca-Cola India that enables and inspires customers to make an impact. As we grow, our focus will be on creating an impact to build a better future for the generations to come.”

The Coca-Cola Company’s World Without Waste initiative is aimed at finding solutions to global challenges of packaging waste, and is focused on three core pillars – (i) Design all primary consumer packaging to be recyclable by 2025 & use 50% recycled material in all packaging by 2030; (ii) Collect and recycle a bottle or can for every one the company sells by 2030; (iii) Partner: Bring people together to support a healthy, debris-free environment.

In India, The Coca-Cola Company is working with partner organizations to achieve complete plastic circularity by improving local recycling systems where post-consumer cartons, cans, and bottles are efficiently recycled.