Plant-based ketchup bottles going green

Coca-Cola says it hopes to revolutionize the plastic bottle industry and make it more earth-friendly after announcing a new deal with H.J. Heinz Company this week.

The ketchup maker's adoption of Coca-Cola's PlantBottle technology marks the biggest change to the iconic ketchup bottle since the company first introduced plastic in 1983. The move also brings corporate giants in line with green-minded consumers.

Beginning in June, Heinz ketchup bottles will be packaged with the PlantBottle, made partly from Brazilian sugarcane.

The partnership - described as an industry-first - couples two multinational companies which contribute to the consumption of millions of barrels of oil each year to create plastic packaging. The announcement also comes at a time when civil unrest in the Arab world is pushing oil prices higher and higher.

Coca-Cola says the plant-based packaging eliminated the equivalent of 30,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or 60,000 barrels of oil in 2010.

Heinz has adopted a sustainability goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, waste, water and energy consumption by at least 20 percent by 2015.

Coca-Cola's goal is to transition all of its plastic packaging to PlantBottle by 2020. Currently, the packaging is used in nine markets including Canada, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the US, with plans to expand to a dozen new markets later this year.

PepsiCo has also come out with the Eco-Fina bottle, which uses 50 percent less plastic than their original Aquafina bottled water introduced in 2002.