Coca-Cola is to revert to glass packaging after sales of soft drinks in glass bottles grew by 2.6%
The company’s return to glass packaging is in sync with a global trend among soft drink makers, who are responding to consumer concerns about health,
taste quality, and the environment.
According to market analysis firm Nielsen, sales of soft drinks in glass bottles grew by 2.6% for the year to the end of April 2013, while during the same period sales of drinks in other packaging materials fell.
Coca-Cola was one of the first soft drink makers to use glass packaging when they introduced Coke back in the late 1800s, but metal and aluminium cans started to gain popularity in the 1960s, followed by plastic bottles in the late 1970s.
Despite the prevalence of plastic packaging over the last few decades, Coca-Cola’s traditional glass bottle is so well known that it led to Coke being named as the number one brand in glass in a 2009 Europe-wide survey by the Friends of Glass.