Molson Coors Beverage Co. said it will make an $85 million investment to transition away from plastic rings for its beverage packaging.
Coors Light said it will begin the transition “to fully recyclable and sustainably sourced cardboard-wrap carriers later this year.”
Molson Coors said it “will upgrade its packaging machinery, which will also allow the company’s entire North American portfolio of brands to advance to cardboard wrap carriers by the end of 2025.”
The company said the new packaging will eliminate “1.7 million pounds of plastic waste annually. In 2021, Molson Coors removed plastic rings across all major brands sold in the United Kingdom, including Coors and Carling, and transitioned to recyclable cardboard sleeves.
Molson Coors in Canada moved to more sustainable plastic rings in 2021 as an initial step, and as part of today’s announcement commits to eliminate plastic rings entirely.”
Coors Light will debut the new packaging at the “Plastic-Free Future Mart by Coors Light,” a super sustainable pop-up concept store in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Wednesday.
“We believe that buying beer shouldn’t mean buying plastic,” Marcelo Pascoa, vice president of marketing for the Coors Family of Brands, said in a news release. “That’s why we’re taking a step toward making packaging even more sustainable, and with this achievement Coors Light will save 400,000 pounds of single-use plastic from becoming waste every year.”
