Coca-Cola's Journey
The first step of producing Coca-Cola is making the actual concentrate. This concentrate is only manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta. The company has not revealed to the public where the concentrate is made, nor how it is made. Once the concentrate is ready, it is sold to over 900 licensed Coca-Cola bottlers around the world. These bottling plants transform the concentrate into a soft drink by diluting them with water, and then adding sweeteners and carbonation [6]. However, the actual bottles and cans are not made in these Coca-Cola bottling plants. They are made separately in an independent bottling company. Once the bottles are made, being the aluminum cans, plastic bottles, and glass bottles, they are sent to the original Coca-Cola bottlers where the bottles and cans are filled with Coke. Even though the bottling companies and the Atlanta Coca-Cola Companies are generally separate legal entities, they still rely on eachother in order for their businesses to thrive [7].
The Coke is now ready to be distributed and transported all over the world. To learn more about how Coke is almost within everyone's reach, see "Transportation".
PlantBottle
An ongoing project that the Coca-Cola Company is currently working on is called "PlantBottle". The new bottle will be made up of 22.5% plant-based polyethylene terephthalate plastic. The Coca-Cola Company says that based on their activation of PlantBottle packaging throughout 2010 and comparing it to traditional petroleum-based PET plastic bottles, an amount equivalent to 30,000 metric tons of CO2 was reduced [8].
The Baton Rouge Coca-Cola Bottling Company, located in Louisiana, U.S. [9]
[6] "Coca-Cola." Wikipedia. Accessed June 02, 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola.
[7] "Ultimate Factories (Megafactories) - Coca Cola (Full Length/One Part)." YouTube. October 07, 2011. Accessed June 01, 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5QXA9eNL0w.
[8] "PlantBottle Benefits." The CocaCola Company. Accessed June 02, 2012. http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/citizenship/plantbottle_benefits.html.
[9] "Ultimate Factories (Megafactories) - Coca Cola (Full Length/One Part)." YouTube. October 07, 2011. Accessed June 01, 2012. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5QXA9eNL0w.