Copyright © Françoise Herrmann
Launched in 2018 in Brazil, the universal, re-usable plastic Coca-Cola bottle goes beyond recycling. This Coca-Cola bottle is called "universal" because it is both a multiple-brand and multiple-use (vs. single-use) product. In Brazil, the universal bottle is a 1L RefPET* (one-liter, refillable polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottle, that is re-usable across soft drink brands (e.g., Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta and Fresca) up to 25 times, before it is recycled**.
Thus, the universal bottle enters a circular economy, with consumers using the small deposit fee on the RefPet bottle to reduce the price of a new purchase, each time a REfPet bottle is returned. The returned RefPet bottles are then sent to a processing facility that washes, sanitizes, refills, and relabels the ReftPet bottles before distributing them anew.
However, for the reuse system to work—for bottles to be retired at the right time, when damaged or no longer serviceable—the life cycle, or the number of times the bottles are refilled, has to be tracked. The following patent recites a QR code invention designed to remedy the difficulties of traditional inventory tracking on labels or with two-dimensional codes. Indeed, labels are changed with each universal reuse, and some labels peel off, even before the bottles are processed for reuse. Likewise, the RefPet bottle-sterilization process tends to eventually make bottles hazy, and thus erases any two-dimensional codes printed on the bottles.
The invention recited in the US utility patent US12269646B2, titled Systems and methods for tracking refillable packages filled at a bottling facility, comprises a radio-frequency identification tag (RFID), laser-engraved on the bottle, a radio frequency identification reader, and a data processing system in communication with the reader to store and process the information extracted from the RFID tag. Thus, for each rPET bottle, the complete history of the bottle becomes available, in addition to other types of information that the manufacturer may want to track (e.g., origin, stress cracking, or even promotions, games and raffle codes). RFID information might also be combined with information from other technologies such as vending or drop-off machines, or those technologies detecting fill and pressure, at the processing centers.
The extracted patent Figure 3 is shown below, together with a close-up image of an engraved QR Code, on a marketed RefPET universal bottle. The patent Figure 3 is a plan view of a refillable package 10, in this case a bottle 15, with an RFID tag 120 appearing on the bottle’s neck 35. The bottle comprises a base 20, with a rounded concave shape 50, a waist 25, a label panel 30, a mouth 40 and a closure 45. Three universal RefPET marketed bottles (empty, Coca-Cola and Fanta) are also included below.
Notes
* ReftPet or rPet
**Since the universal bottle was first introduced in Brazil, in 2018, the reusable model is estimated to replace 200 million single-use bottles, per year (PackingEurope, 2020; MacArthur, 2021). Success in Brazil prompted the reuse system to swiftly expand across Latin America to Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay (GS1, 2024). More recently, in 2024, the reusable system was rolled out in South Africa, where the universal bottle is a 2L rPET program (Coca-Cola Africa, 2023). Similar programs have also rolled out in Western Europe, in the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Germany (Laird, 2020; Ross, 2023).
References
-Coca-Coca Africa (Feb. 9, 2023). Coca-Cola Beverages South Africa expands roll-out of 2L returnable PET bottles to reduce plastic waste in Free State and Northern Cape. Coca-Cola Beverages Africa.
-GS1 (2024). Coca-Cola’s reusable, refillable bottles benefit from innovative QR Codes powered by GS1. GS1.
-Laird, K. (Sept. 8, 2020). Coca-Cola forges ahead with recycled PET bottle commitment in Western Europe. Plastic News.
-Ross, H. (Aug. 4, 2023). Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) Collaborates with Petainer to Develop 'Universal refPET Bottle'. Petainer.
-MacArthur, E. (Oct. 7, 2021). A reusable drinks bottle design for multiple brands: Universal Bottle. Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
-Packaging Europe (Feb. 11, 2020). Reuse: a closer look at Coca-Cola Brazil’s unique returnable bottle initiative. PackagingEurope.com
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