At Coca-Cola, our packaging innovation teams are constantly working on ways to advance packaging technologies that meet consumer needs while also enhancing environmental, business and social performance. Last year, we introduced a new, redesigned PET plastic bottle made partially from plants, and we expect to have some 2.5 billion PlantBottles in the marketplace this year. Also, we plan to double our use of PlantBottle packaging in 2011. We're excited about the innovation and we're getting lots of positive feedback from customers and consumers.
Our PlantBottle packaging is made by converting natural sugars found in plants into a key ingredient for making PET plastic. For those who want the technical specifics, we've innovated a way to develop plant-based MEG, a key component in PET plastic. PlantBottle is up to 30 percent plant-based because MEG is 30 percent of the total composition of PET plastic by weight. We still have more work to do to crack the code on a plant-based TA, which is the other 70 percent of PET plastic, but we know it is feasible.
Today we are using sugar cane juice and molasses to create our PlantBottle packaging, and we're working to advance the development of next generation technologies capable of extracting sugar from plant wastes like stems, barks and fruit peels.
The plants we use in PlantBottle packaging are specifically selected based on sustainability criteria to ensure that they do not compete with food crops and are capable of delivering improved environmental performance.
PlantBottle is fully recyclable in existing community recycling programs (as confirmed by the Plastics Forming Enterprises and Association of Postconsumer Plastics Recyclers) and the material can be used back into new bottles or to create furniture, clothing or the wide variety of other products made from recycled PET today.