The iconic brown L&P bottle may be on its way out, which could quite possibly be the most upsetting fizzy drink news we Kiwis have heard all year.
After 115 years, New Zealanders must brace themselves for a significant change in how the Lemon and Paeroa fizzy drink appears in our stores.
Yes, Coca-Cola New Zealand is considering replacing the famous brown bottle with a non-coloured, more transparent version.
This absolutely breaks my heart but of course, they wouldn’t take such a HUGE change lightly.
Coca-Cola announced that green bottles of Sprite would be scrapped and replaced with clear plastic to increase the recyclability of the product and that’s what they plan to do with the good ol’ classic brown bottle.
In a statement, Coca-Cola NZ shared that they are driven to create change and that the new look for the L&P packaging is in the works.
“We are a proud signatory to the Ministry for the Environment’s Plastic Packaging Declaration, which will see us using 100 per cent reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging by 2025 or earlier.”
The statement continues that as of 2020, “all of our plastic bottles under 1 litre and all out our water bottles in all sizes were produced with 100% recycled plastic.”
“Our caps and labels are not currently made from recycled content but we are exploring technical options to help us address this,” hence the decision to look into the swap out of their coloured bottles.
Of course, the brown bottle will be missed on supermarket shelves but doing right by the planet is ultimately the best outcome right? It’s fantastic to see the beverage giant taking a lead in changing the way their company impacts the planet.
At least we have the giant L&P statue in Paeroa to remember the good times, right?
