Coca-Cola India and Zepto expand collaboration for the Return and Recycle initiative

Coca-Cola India and Zepto has recently announced the expansion of their collaboration in India to reinforce their commitment towards plastic circularity. The ‘Return and Recycle’ initiative was launched in November 2022 as a pilot project in select locations of Mumbai. The initiative established an organized process of collecting PET bottles with 100% traceability, to ensure effective plastic waste management. About 100kgs of PET bottles were collected and recycled as a part of the 60-day pilot project, the company informed.

Zepto and Coca Cola’s collaboration aims at driving the digitization of their collection strategy by leveraging e-commerce platforms, the company stated. Additionally, the initiative will now be scaled with collection bins deployed across hundreds of Zepto delivery hubs in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, and Kolkata.

Commenting on the expansion of the initiative, Abhishek Gupta, chief customer officer, Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia, said, “The success of Coca-Cola’s partnership with Zepto has been characterized by strong synergies in sustainability and social responsibility. We are delighted to extend the partnership to other cities, continuing our efforts towards plastic circularity. With the ‘return and recycle’ initiative across India, we are furthering the company’s global goal of creating a world without waste.”

Furthermore, leveraging the Zepto two-wheeler distribution network, the “self-sustainable initiative” seeks to ‘collect’ empty PET bottles of any brand from consumers, which then goes to the recycler as a raw material The initiative also demonstrates Coca-Cola’s commitment towards the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission which promotes recycling as one of its core principles. It further aims to encourage its consumers to recycle PET by raising awareness on the importance of recycling and its positive impact on the environment.

Vinay Dhanani, chief operations officer at Zepto, added, “This collaboration has been an exciting opportunity to demonstrate the potential of new-age e-commerce beyond business. We are proud to have built an agile and efficient last-mile network that seamlessly extends itself to innovative initiatives like this. Our aim is to constantly innovate and embed sustainable practices in all areas of operations at Zepto. Be it route optimization, EV or bicycle-led deliveries, sustainable packaging, or reducing waste, we are committed to reducing our footprint and sharing our vision with brands and the Government of India.”

Coca-Cola India and Zepto’s ‘Return and Recycle’ initiative aims to promote and build lasting sustainable behaviour and reduce the environmental impact of plastic waste through shared purpose.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook