Drink Packaging Sustainability Report 2026: The Market And Data

The global beverage packaging market was valued at $176.57 billion in 2025 and is on track to reach $275.09 billion by 2034. That is a staggering amount of bottles, cans, cartons, and pouches — and behind every one of them is a question the drinks industry can no longer avoid: are we growing at the planet’s expense?

Outline

Drink packaging sustainability is the practice of designing, making, and disposing of beverage containers in ways that reduce environmental harm. In concrete terms, that means choosing materials that can actually be recycled or composted, cutting carbon emissions across the full packaging lifecycle, reducing the volume of single-use plastic that ends up in landfill or in the ocean, and building systems that keep packaging materials in circulation rather than writing them off after a single use.

That definition sounds straightforward. The reality is messier. Consumers want sustainable beverage packaging but they also want drinks that are affordable, fresh, convenient, and available in every format imaginable, and beverage trends in 2026 reflect exactly that tension. Brands want to hit their sustainability targets but face cost pressures, supply chain gaps, and production systems that were not built for rapid change. Regulators are tightening rules faster than some markets can adapt.

This report works through all of it honestly. We cover the most common beverage packaging materials and how they actually perform on sustainability, what major drink brands are genuinely doing (including where they have fallen short), how regulations are shifting globally, the real barriers slowing progress, and the innovations that are starting to move things in a better direction. We also look at what consumers can do and where drink packaging sustainability is realistically headed by 2030.

Why Drink Packaging Sustainability Can’t Be Ignored

For a long time, sustainability commitments in the drinks industry were largely voluntary and often vague. That has changed. The combination of consumer expectations, tightening laws, and measurable environmental damage has made drink packaging sustainability a commercial and regulatory necessity, not a nice-to-have. Rigid plastic is still the most widely used beverage packaging material, even as consumer demand for alternatives grows.

Consumers Are Paying Attention

The consumer demand for change is no longer a niche concern. A 2024 global survey found that over 70% of consumers factor sustainability into their purchasing decisions when choosing beverages. That is a majority — not a segment. And it translates to purchasing behaviour, not just survey responses. Research by Innova Market Insights found that a third of consumers are willing to pay a price premium for more sustainable packaging. Among younger buyers, that figure rises to 83%, according to the Global Buying Green Report.

These numbers matter because they shift the commercial argument. Eco-friendly drink packaging is no longer a cost that companies absorb as a PR exercise. For a growing portion of the market, it is a purchase driver.

Paper-based alternatives are projected to grow 43%, flexible packaging 30%, and liquid cartons 16% as the industry begins to shift — a trend closely tied to the broader growth of the healthy drinks industry, where consumers are choosing products that align with their values.

The Plastic Problem Is Real and Measurable

Plastic accounts for approximately 45% of all beverage packaging globally. Despite that dominance, only 25% of plastic beverage packaging is actually recycled in the United States. The rest goes to landfill, incineration, or worse, ends up improperly disposed of in natural environments. Research published in 2025 by REACH24H estimates that tens of millions of tons of plastic waste are mismanaged in the natural environment annually, causing measurable damage to soil quality, aquatic ecosystems, and wildlife.

Rigid plastic is still the most widely used beverage packaging material, even as consumer demand for alternatives grows. [6] According to PMMI’s 2025 Beverage Industry Packaging Trends report, paper-based packaging is projected to grow by 43%, flexible packaging by 30%, and liquid cartons by 16% as the industry begins to shift. That shift is underway but it is not fast.

Laws Are No Longer Optional

The regulatory picture has changed dramatically in recent years. Five US states — California, Colorado, Oregon, Maine, and Minnesota — have already passed Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws for packaging. EPR frameworks make the companies selling packaged drinks financially responsible for what happens to their packaging after use, rather than passing that cost onto local governments and taxpayers.

California’s AB 793 law requires plastic beverage containers to contain at least 25% post-consumer recycled (PCR) content from 2025, rising to 50% by 2030. The European Union has set a 70% overall packaging recycling rate target for 2025, with at least 55% specifically for plastics and 85% for paper and cardboard.

These are legal requirements, not aspirations. Brands that ignore them face fines, restricted market access, and the kind of reputational damage that is very hard to recover from. Drink packaging sustainability has become part of how companies manage legal and financial risk, not just environmental optics.

Worth knowing: The global sustainable packaging market was valued at $228.79 billion in 2019 and has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 5.1% since 2020. It is not a trend that is fading.

The Drinks Industry’s Packaging Materials – How Green Are They Really?

Not all sustainable drink packaging is what it appears to be. Some materials are genuinely better for the environment under most conditions. Others have legitimate sustainability credentials in some contexts but significant drawbacks in others. When you look at the full packaging lifecycle — from raw material extraction through production, transport, use, and end-of-life disposal — the picture for each material gets more complicated.

Here is an honest look at the main beverage packaging materials and where they actually stand on drink packaging sustainability — covering everything from the bottles used for non-alcoholic drinks to glass used in premium spirits.

Plastic

Plastic accounts for around 45% of global beverage packaging and is not going anywhere fast. PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) is the most common type, valued for its clarity, strength, light weight, and low production cost. HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene) is used for products that need stronger protection, such as milk and juice containers.

The sustainability problem with plastic is not that it cannot be recycled, it is that most of it is not. This particularly affects everyday categories like hydration drinks, which are among the highest-volume plastic bottle users globally. PET is recyclable. The problem is that only 25% of it actually gets recycled in the US, meaning the other 75% ends up in landfill, incineration, or the environment. This is partly a material problem and partly an infrastructure problem, which we will cover later.

The more sustainable version of PET is rPET — recycled polyethylene terephthalate. rPET is made from used bottles rather than from virgin fossil-fuel-based raw materials, and producing it generates significantly lower carbon emissions than producing new PET from scratch. In 2024, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling used 46% recycled content across its packaging — exceeding its own 35% target and demonstrating that meaningful rPET use at scale is achievable.

The EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive mandates 30% recycled content in single-use plastic beverage bottles by 2030, rising to 65% by 2040. That is a significant legal requirement. The challenge is that quality rPET is currently in short supply, and virgin plastic remains cheaper — which means regulatory pressure is essential to drive the shift rather than leaving it to market economics alone.

Aluminum

This is one of the strongest performers in the beverage packaging sustainability conversation, and the data backs that up. It can be recycled indefinitely without losing quality or structural integrity. It has a well-established global recycling infrastructure. Recycling aluminum uses significantly less energy than producing it from bauxite ore, which reduces both cost and carbon emissions.

The metal cans segment is currently growing at the fastest rate in the beverage packaging market. Google Trends recorded a 33% spike in searches for “aluminum beverage cans” in May 2025, which signals growing consumer awareness of its advantages. UK-based GUNNA Drinks has made the switch to resealable 500ml aluminum bottles for all its sodas, eliminating single-use plastic from its packaging entirely — a move that reflects the broader direction of the alcohol-free drinks market, where sustainable credentials are increasingly part of the brand identity.

In markets with well-designed deposit return schemes (DRS), aluminum collection rates are exceptionally high. Aluminum is not perfect — production from raw ore is energy-intensive, and not every market has the recycling infrastructure to capture the full benefit — but among recyclable beverage containers currently available at scale, it performs strongly.

Glass

Just over half of consumers (51%) describe glass as “extremely eco-friendly,” according to Innova Market Insights research. That perception has some foundation in reality. Glass is inert, it does not leach chemicals into drinks, and it can be recycled endlessly without any loss of quality. Refillable glass bottles, common in parts of Europe, are one of the most genuinely sustainable beverage packaging formats available.

The honest downside is weight. Glass is significantly heavier than plastic or aluminum, which means higher fuel use and carbon emissions during transport. This can partially or entirely offset the environmental benefits of using a recyclable material, depending on the distance products travel and the transport method used. Lightweight glass innovations are helping, new production processes are reducing glass thickness without compromising durability, but the gap with lighter materials remains.

For premium products sold locally, with refillable systems in place, glass makes strong sense on sustainability grounds — and this is especially relevant for categories like non-alcoholic wine, where the premium perception of glass is part of the product experience. For standard, high-volume beverages shipped long distances, the case is less clear-cut. Flat-format bottles, such as those developed by Garçon Wines in partnership with Packamama, offer one creative solution: they fit 91% more product per shipping pallet compared to traditional round glass bottles, cutting transport emissions by around 50%.

Paper and Paperboard

Paper-based beverage packaging is one of the fastest-growing areas in the industry. PMMI’s 2025 Beverage Industry Packaging Trends report projects 43% growth for paper-based alternatives. The EU targets an 85% recycling rate for paper and cardboard by 2025 — the highest target of any material category.

PepsiCo completed its transition from plastic multipack rings to paperboard packaging in Canada in 2024, with the US rollout ongoing. CO-RO joined the Two Sides industry group in August 2024 to actively promote paper-based packaging for soft drinks. These are not small gestures — they represent genuine volume commitments from major players.

The limitation of paper for beverage packaging is that liquid contact requires a barrier coating to prevent the packaging from absorbing the drink or breaking down. Those barrier coatings — often plastic laminates — can complicate or prevent recyclability, depending on how they are formulated. Innovation in water-based and bio-based coatings is addressing this, and the technology is improving, but it has not yet fully solved the problem for all beverage categories.

Plant-Based and Biodegradable Packaging

Corn starch, sugarcane, bamboo, and bagasse (the fibrous residue from sugarcane processing) are being used to produce packaging that decomposes faster than conventional plastic and uses renewable feedstocks rather than fossil fuels. This category of biodegradable drink packaging and compostable beverage packaging is genuinely interesting, but most of it is still in relatively early-stage commercial development.

Some notable examples: KISSD Flavoured Spring Water uses a carton made from 88% plant-based materials — primarily paper and sugarcane — that is fully recyclable. In 2021, Diageo, working with packaging company Pulpex, launched a 90% paper-based bottle for Johnnie Walker Black Label, marking a landmark moment for spirits packaging. And fiber-based bottles developed through a collaboration between RyPax and CelluComp — made from bagasse and bamboo using a proprietary binding ingredient — are in early trials.

The honest state of play: plant-based options work well for still beverages and some water products. Carbonation remains a significant engineering challenge, most current plant-based and fiber formats cannot yet maintain the barrier properties needed for sparkling water, soft drinks, or beer at commercial scale. The carbonation barrier problem is a genuine engineering challenge but not an insurmountable one — and it matters most for high-volume categories like non-alcoholic beers, where sustainable packaging innovation is urgently needed. That is likely to change as the technology matures, but it is not a solved problem yet.

What the Biggest Drink Brands Are Actually Doing

Big brands make big commitments. Whether those commitments turn into results is a different question. Here is what the data actually shows for some of the most prominent names in the industry, along with an honest assessment of where things stand.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola reported that 99% of its primary consumer packaging was recyclable in 2024 — a significant jump from the 90% it reported for both 2022 and 2023. Of its packaging mix in 2024, 48% was plastic PET bottles. Of that PET, 18% was recycled PET. Fourteen percent of total beverage volume was served in reusable packaging.

Coca-Cola also introduced label-free bottles in Japan, South Korea, and China to improve recyclability. In those markets, removing labels simplifies the sorting and recycling process, which improves the quality of recovered material.

Coca-Cola’s current targets, revised in late 2024 with a 2035 deadline, include using at least 35% recycled material in primary packaging, increasing recycled plastic content to at least 30%, and collecting at least 70% of the bottles and cans it puts on the market. It is worth noting that Coca-Cola shifted these goals from its earlier 2025 and 2030 targets after falling behind on recycled content. That is an honest signal of how difficult sustainable beverage packaging is to deliver at scale — not a reason to dismiss the progress made.

PepsiCo

PepsiCo completed its transition from plastic multipack rings to paperboard packaging in Canada in 2024. The US rollout is ongoing. PepsiCo Europe achieved 58% recycled content in packaging by 2022, already exceeding its 2030 target of 50%. In Mexico, PepsiCo introduced packaging containing rNEW — a bio-based, renewable plastic derived from castor beans — in its first use of bio-based resins in Latin American packaging. PepsiCo is also a member of the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty and supported the establishment of a voluntary EPR program for flexible packaging in Thailand in 2024.

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling

Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling (CCH) has been one of the stronger performers in sustainable beverage packaging. The company made 100% of its primary packaging — PET, glass, aluminum, and aseptic cartons — recyclable by design in 2022, three years ahead of its 2025 target. In 2024, 58% of the bottles and cans it placed on the market were either refilled or collected for recycling.

CCH’s KeelClip product, now sold in 23 countries, replaces plastic shrink wrap for multipack cans. It avoids approximately 2,500 metric tonnes of plastic shrink annually compared to the previous format. The LitePac Top innovation, launched in Austria in September 2023, removes shrink film from PET bottle multipacks entirely, eliminating roughly 135 tonnes of plastic annually in Austria alone. These are not small gestures, they represent genuine volume commitments from major players, and the shift is already showing up in how drinks are being sold and distributed online.

Diageo

Diageo pioneered a 90% paper-based bottle for Johnnie Walker Black Label in 2021, developed with Pulpex. That set a new reference point for what was possible in spirits packaging. Diageo also integrated NFC (Near Field Communication) chips into Johnnie Walker Blue Label bottles in 2019, enabling consumers to access product information, recycling guidance, and authentication data directly from the packaging.

Carlsberg

Carlsberg’s Snap Pack technology bonds beer cans together using a small amount of glue rather than the traditional plastic ring carriers. The result is a 76% reduction in plastic use per pack, and more than 1,200 tonnes of plastic eliminated from the supply chain annually. The cans can also be stacked more efficiently, which reduces transportation costs and carbon emissions.

The Summary

The brands doing the best on beverage packaging sustainability are those that have invested in systems change — not just material swaps. CCH, Carlsberg, and PepsiCo Europe all have results that stand up to scrutiny. But the picture is not uniformly positive. Danone, for example, achieved only 17% recycled content in overall packaging in 2024 against a 25% target for 2025, and has since revised its deadlines. Colgate-Palmolive hit 21% recycled resin against a 25% target, citing supply availability as a key barrier. [20] Good intentions, without the infrastructure and investment to back them, do not close the gap.

The Rules Are Changing – Here’s What Governments Are Requiring

Voluntary commitments shift culture. Laws shift markets. Here is what governments around the world are now legally requiring from drink packaging, and the deadlines that matter.

United States

Five US states have enacted EPR laws for packaging: California, Colorado, Oregon, Maine, and Minnesota. Each state has its own specifics, but all share the goal of reducing packaging waste, improving recycling rates, and making producers responsible for the end-of-life management of their packaging.

Key requirements to know:

California AB 793: Plastic beverage containers must contain 25% PCR content from 2025, rising to 50% by 2030. Beverage manufacturers must report virgin and recycled plastic usage annually.
New Jersey SB 2515: Plastic beverage containers require a minimum of 15% recycled content from 2024, increasing every three years to reach 50% by 2045.
Washington: Plastic beverage bottles must contain 15% PCR now, rising to 25% by 2026 and 50% by 2031.
Connecticut: Plastic beverage containers must reach 25% PCR content by 2027 and 30% by 2032.
Maine EPR: Producers must make 50% of packaging readily recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2030, with 100% by 2050. Packaging weight reductions of 40% by 2040 and 60% by 2050 are also required.

In 2024 alone, 10 additional US states introduced or amended packaging-related EPR bills. The regulatory landscape is moving quickly.

European Union

The EU has the most comprehensive and advanced packaging regulatory framework currently in force. Key requirements include:

A 70% overall packaging recycling rate target by 2025, with 55% for plastic and 85% for paper and cardboard.
The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD) mandates 30% recycled content in contact-sensitive PET packaging and single-use plastic beverage bottles by 2030, rising to 65% by 2040. Other plastic packaging must reach 35% recycled content by 2030.
Tethered caps — caps that remain attached to bottles rather than coming off entirely — are now mandatory for all plastic beverage bottles sold in the EU, reducing cap litter.

In Europe, the evidence shows that policy-driven mandates work. In 2024, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling achieved 46% recycled content against a legal target of 35%. PepsiCo Europe reached 58% in 2022 against a 50% target for 2030.

Global

Singapore: The Beverage Container Return Scheme (BCRS) launches in 2026. Producers must manage end-of-life disposal of pre-packaged beverage containers. A mandatory 10-cent deposit encourages consumer return of containers.
Canada: A Federal Plastics Registry was launched in 2024. Producers must report annually on all plastic they manufacture, import, and sell. Canada has a national goal of zero plastic waste by 2030. In 2019, Canadians discarded 4.4 million tonnes of plastic waste, with only 9% recycled.
Australia: National Packaging Targets set a goal of 100% of packaging being reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025. Australia’s current plastic packaging recovery rate sits at around 20% — a significant gap from the target.
South Korea: A 20% reduction in plastic waste from a 2025 baseline is legislated.
UN Global Plastics Treaty: Final negotiations concluded in Busan, South Korea, in late 2024. The treaty process involves 175 nations. Regardless of the final text, it is expected to trigger national legislation in participating countries in the years that follow.

Sustainable drink packaging is increasingly a legal matter, not just a brand decision. Companies operating across multiple markets need to track a growing number of overlapping and sometimes inconsistent regulations.

Why Sustainable Drink Packaging Is Harder to Deliver Than It Looks

There is a large gap between setting a sustainability target and actually hitting it. The reasons for that gap are worth understanding clearly, because they explain why progress has been slower than many brands promised — and why the challenge is genuinely systemic rather than simply a lack of effort.

Cost Remains a Real Barrier

Sustainable materials typically cost more than conventional plastic. Recycled PET costs more to source than virgin PET. Paper-based packaging requires investment in new production equipment. Biodegradable alternatives are priced at a premium. PMMI’s 2025 Beverage Industry Packaging Trends report puts it plainly: “While minor cost increases may go unnoticed, significant price jumps can force difficult decisions.” [6]

Brands must choose between absorbing higher costs, passing them on to consumers, or slowing their sustainability commitments. None of those choices is easy, and market dynamics — where virgin plastic remains significantly cheaper than recycled alternatives — make the economics difficult without regulatory mandates to level the playing field.

Recycling Infrastructure Cannot Keep Up

Even packaging that is technically recyclable often does not get recycled. In the US, only 25% of plastic beverage packaging is actually collected and processed through recycling systems. [5] This is partly a consumer behaviour issue — confusing or inconsistent labelling leads to contamination and incorrect sorting — and partly an infrastructure issue. Not every municipality has the processing capacity to handle every material type that brands use.

Consumers are experiencing what researchers describe as “recycling fatigue.” When recycling rules differ from one town to the next, and when labels make vague or misleading claims, many people eventually give up trying to do it correctly. Contamination from incorrectly sorted packaging is one of the biggest practical problems facing recycling systems today.

Insufficient Supply of Quality Recycled Content

Brands across the industry have cited the same problem: demand for quality rPET and other recycled materials is outstripping supply. Danone reached only 17% recycled content in 2024 against a 25% goal, with access to quality recycled material listed as a core barrier. Colgate-Palmolive reduced virgin resin use by 25% against a target of 33%, stating that “the availability, quality and feasibility of recycled content” are ongoing challenges. [20]

This is a structural supply problem. The volume of high-quality food-grade recycled material the industry needs does not yet exist at the scale required. Investment in recycling infrastructure — particularly bottle-to-bottle recycling facilities and chemical recycling capacity — is the only way to close that gap.

Production Line Complexity Is Often Underestimated

Switching packaging materials is not simply a procurement decision. It often requires retooling production lines, retraining staff, qualifying new suppliers, and redesigning packaging formats. PMMI’s 2025 survey identified a significant disconnect between the people who set sustainability targets and the people responsible for implementing them on the factory floor: “Those who prioritise sustainability often don’t understand its impact on packaging operations.”

This is not a problem unique to any one company. It reflects a systemic gap between strategy and operational reality that slows progress across the industry.

Carbonation Is a Technical Problem

Most plant-based and fiber-based packaging cannot yet maintain the barrier properties needed for carbonated beverages at commercial scale. Carbonated water, soft drinks, and beer — which together represent some of the highest-volume beverage categories globally — cannot currently be packaged in most alternative materials without losing carbonation during shelf life. This is a genuine engineering challenge, not a lack of ambition, and it limits how quickly the industry can move away from plastic and glass for these products.

Greenwashing Is Eroding Consumer Trust

Vague environmental claims on packaging — terms like “eco-friendly,” “green,” “natural,” or “sustainable” without supporting data or verification — are undermining consumer confidence in genuine sustainability efforts. Investors and regulators are on high alert. The EU’s Green Claims Directive, currently in development, will require companies to substantiate environmental claims with evidence before making them. For brands that are doing the real work, this creates an opportunity to differentiate themselves. For brands relying on language over substance, it is a risk.

Innovations That Are Moving Drink Packaging Sustainability Forward

Despite the barriers, there are real and meaningful developments underway. Drink packaging sustainability is advancing through a combination of material science, engineering, policy design, and business model innovation. Here is where the most significant progress is happening.

Chemical Recycling

Traditional mechanical recycling has a fundamental limitation: each time plastic is processed, the polymer chains shorten, reducing material quality. After several cycles, mechanically recycled plastic degrades to the point where it can no longer be used in food-contact applications.

Chemical recycling solves this by breaking plastic down to its original chemical building blocks — monomers — which can then be used to produce virgin-quality material. The most widely used chemical recycling method is pyrolysis, which uses thermal decomposition in an oxygen-free environment to convert plastic waste into oil that can be refined back into plastic feedstock. Pyrolysis can reduce CO2 emissions by up to 60% compared to conventional incineration or landfill.

The global plastic chemical recycling market is projected to grow from $44.88 billion in 2024 to $67.58 billion by 2029, a compound annual growth rate of 8.6%. That growth signals significant capital flowing into this technology, but it is important to note that chemical recycling is not yet at the scale needed to make a material dent in global plastic waste volumes. It is a long-term part of the solution, not an immediate fix.

Smart Packaging

Smart packaging uses technology embedded in or printed on packaging to provide information beyond what a standard label can offer. NFC (Near Field Communication) chips, QR codes, and digital watermarks allow consumers to access recycling instructions, product provenance data, sustainability credentials, and authenticity verification.

Diageo embedded NFC chips in Johnnie Walker Blue Label bottles in 2019. Wise Wolf by Banrock Station uses QR codes to show consumers that 95.1% of its packaging is made from recycled materials. This kind of transparency builds trust and makes it easier for consumers to act on their values — including recycling correctly.

Smart labels and freshness sensors are also being used to reduce beverage waste. By giving consumers accurate information about product condition, they reduce the volume of drinks discarded before they need to be.

Lightweight Packaging

Lightweighting means using less material per unit of packaging. This reduces the raw materials consumed in production and cuts the carbon footprint of transport, since vehicles can carry more product per journey. It is one of the most straightforward sustainability gains available to the industry.

Coca-Cola Hellenic’s LitePac Top innovation, launched in Austria in September 2023, eliminates shrink film from PET bottle multipacks entirely, removing approximately 135 tonnes of plastic from CCH’s supply chain annually in Austria alone. Garçon Wines’ flat-format bottle — 87% lighter than standard glass — fits 91% more product per shipping pallet and cuts transport emissions by around 50%.

The shift toward aluminum cans, cartons, and rPET across the industry is also part of this lightweighting trend. Lighter packaging materials reduce the total weight of goods in transit, which compounds into significant emissions reductions at scale.

Bottle-to-Bottle Recycling

Bottle-to-bottle recycling is the process of taking collected beverage containers, processing them into food-grade recycled material, and using that material to produce new beverage containers. It is the circular economy model in practical action: material stays in use rather than being downcycled into lower-grade products or going to waste.

A new PET bottle-to-bottle recycling facility opened in the Western Cape, South Africa in September 2024, adding 15,000 tonnes of food-grade recycled PET capacity annually. This is the kind of infrastructure investment the global system needs more of. When the supply of food-grade recycled content matches demand, the economics of sustainable beverage packaging shift substantially.

Deposit Return Schemes

Deposit return schemes (DRS) give consumers a financial incentive to return beverage containers after use, rather than relying entirely on curbside collection. The evidence on their effectiveness is consistent and strong: markets with well-designed DRS consistently achieve higher collection rates for recyclable beverage containers than markets without them.

In CCH’s European markets with deposit return systems, the company collected 58% of its bottles and cans in 2024. Singapore is introducing a mandatory DRS for all pre-packaged beverage containers by 2026. PepsiCo uses refillable container models across several markets, including SodaStream refill systems and returnable glass bottles in parts of Europe and Latin America.

Refillable beverage containers, when supported by logistics systems for collection and cleaning, can achieve very low lifecycle environmental footprints — particularly for beverages sold and consumed close to where they are produced.

Mono-Material Packaging

Packaging made from a single material type is significantly easier to process through existing recycling systems than composite or multi-layer packaging. Carlsberg’s Snap Pack is a practical example of mono-material thinking: by replacing multi-material plastic ring carriers with a small amount of food-safe glue directly on the cans, it eliminates a mixed-material component entirely and simplifies recycling of the remaining packaging.

What You Can Do As A Consumer

Drink packaging sustainability is not only a question for brands and governments. What people buy, how they dispose of packaging, and what they demand from the companies they support all feed into the system. Here is what actually makes a difference at the individual level.

Read packaging labels properly. Not all “recyclable” claims mean your local recycling system can process the item. The How2Recycle label in the US and the On-Pack Recycling Label (OPRL) in the UK provide standardised, verified guidance based on what local infrastructure can actually handle. When in doubt, check your local authority’s guidance rather than guessing, because contamination from incorrectly sorted packaging is one of the biggest practical barriers facing recycling infrastructure today.

Choose glass and aluminum where you have the option. Sports and hydration drinks like electrolyte drinks are increasingly available in aluminum — a packaging format that supports both recyclability and freshness.

Use your deposit return scheme if you have one. If your state or country operates a DRS, returning your bottles and cans through that system gives them the highest chance of being recycled back into new beverage containers. It is the most direct action available to individual consumers.

Ask more from brands. Look for brands that publish annual sustainability reports with independently audited data — not just marketing language. A brand that can tell you precisely what percentage of its packaging is recycled content, what its collection rate is, and what its 2030 targets are is operating transparently. One that uses phrases like “eco-friendly packaging” without any supporting numbers deserves scepticism.

Spend with intention. Categories like mocktails are growing precisely because consumers are making more deliberate choices about what they drink and how it is packaged — and that same mindset applies to sustainability. Research shows that a third of consumers will pay a premium for more sustainable packaging. When that proportion of spending shifts, it changes the economics for brands. Individual choices aggregate into market signals.

Quick tip: For residents in the UK, the OPRL website lets you search any packaging type to find out whether it should go in your recycling bin, be taken to a recycling point, or go in general waste. US consumers can use the How2Recycle database at how2recycle.info.

Future Outlook of Drink Packaging Sustainability

Based on where regulation, investment, and technology are moving right now, here is a realistic picture of what drink packaging sustainability will look like by 2030.

Regulations will expand and tighten. EPR laws will spread to more US states and more countries globally. The compliance landscape will become more complex for brands operating across multiple markets, and internal regulatory teams will need to become more sophisticated. The UN Global Plastics Treaty process will drive national legislation in participating countries over the next several years.

Recycled content mandates will push infrastructure investment. Europe’s requirement for 65% recycled content in single-use plastic bottles by 2040 is not achievable without major new investment in recycling capacity. Brands that wait for infrastructure to appear will be scrambling. Those that invest in it now — through partnerships with recyclers, EPR programs, or direct facility investment — will be better positioned.

Plant-based and fiber packaging will reach more beverage categories. As barrier coatings improve and production costs fall, plant-based and fiber-based formats will become commercially viable for a wider range of beverages. The carbonation barrier problem is a genuine engineering challenge but not an insurmountable one. Expect meaningful progress in the 3–7 year window, particularly for sparkling water and lower-carbonation beverages.

Circular economy models will expand geographically. Deposit return systems and refillable beverage containers will grow beyond their current strongholds in Northern Europe. Governments in North America and Asia Pacific are watching the data from European DRS programs, and the evidence consistently supports expansion. Markets with strong DRS infrastructure collect dramatically higher proportions of their beverage containers than markets without it.

Transparency will become the baseline expectation. The era of vague environmental claims is closing. Third-party verified sustainability data — covering recycled content, collection rates, carbon footprint, and packaging lifecycle emissions — will become the baseline expectation from both regulators and consumers. Brands that build credible, audited reporting practices now will have a genuine competitive advantage. Those that rely on marketing language without substance face legal and reputational exposure.

The rPET supply shortage will ease, but not quickly. Investment in bottle-to-bottle recycling facilities and chemical recycling is growing. By 2030, the gap between the supply of quality recycled content and industry demand should begin to close, which will bring costs down and make recycled content targets more achievable. The transition will not happen overnight, but the direction of travel is clear.

The brands, regulators, and consumers who treat drink packaging sustainability as a shared, long-term responsibility — rather than a quarterly marketing exercise — will be the ones shaping what we drink from in the years ahead.

Conclusion on Drink Packaging Sustainability

Drink packaging sustainability is one of the more complex challenges in the global food and beverage industry — not because the direction is unclear, but because the path to getting there involves material science, logistics infrastructure, regulatory coordination, supply chain economics, and consumer behaviour all moving at the same time.

The facts as they stand in 2025: plastic still dominates beverage packaging but recycling rates are far too low. Aluminum is the strongest performer on recyclability but needs wider deposit return infrastructure to realise its full potential. Paper-based packaging is growing fast but barrier technology is still catching up. Plant-based and biodegradable options are genuinely promising but commercially limited to certain beverage categories right now. Chemical recycling is an important long-term tool but not yet at scale. And some of the largest brands in the world have missed their own sustainability targets, which tells us that good intentions need to be backed by the right systems and investment to produce real outcomes.

What is also clear is that meaningful progress is happening. Regulatory frameworks are getting stronger and more specific. Investment in recycling infrastructure is growing. Brands like CCH, Carlsberg, and PepsiCo Europe have demonstrated that ambitious targets can be exceeded with the right approach. Consumers are increasingly informed and increasingly willing to let sustainability influence where they spend.

Drink packaging sustainability is not a problem that any single company, government, or individual can solve alone. It is a systems challenge that requires aligned action across the whole supply chain. The good news is that the tools, the technology, and the regulatory frameworks needed to make real progress are either already in place or actively being built. What is needed now is consistent follow-through.

If this report is useful to you, there’s more where it came from. At Pinky Beverages, we cover the drinks industry from the inside out — the materials, the regulations, the brands doing things right, and the ones with work still to do. We go deeper than the press releases and write for people who actually want to understand what is happening in this space.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What does drink packaging sustainability actually mean?

Drink packaging sustainability means producing and disposing of beverage containers in ways that cause as little environmental harm as possible across their full life. It is not just about whether a bottle has a recycling symbol on it. It covers what the material is made from, how much energy and water goes into making it, how far it travels, whether it can realistically be recycled or composted in existing systems, and whether the systems are in place to actually do that at scale. A packaging format that is technically recyclable but rarely gets recycled in practice is not delivering genuine sustainability. Both the material and the system around it matter.

Which drink packaging material is the most sustainable?

There is no single answer, because sustainability depends on what you are measuring and in what context. For recyclability in existing infrastructure, aluminum performs best — it can be recycled indefinitely without quality loss and has well-established collection systems, particularly where deposit return schemes operate. Glass is also endlessly recyclable and chemically inert, but heavier, which increases transport emissions. rPET is improving rapidly and is a good option where the recycled content can be verified. Paper-based packaging is growing fast but still has barrier limitations for liquid products. Plant-based and biodegradable packaging is promising for still beverages but has not yet cracked the carbonation challenge. The most honest answer: for most standard beverage categories, aluminum or verified rPET packaging currently offers the strongest overall sustainability performance within the existing system.

Is aluminum better than glass for the environment?

Generally yes, but it depends on the context. Aluminum can be recycled indefinitely without any loss of quality, and the energy required to recycle aluminum is a fraction of what is needed to produce new aluminum from raw ore. Glass is also infinitely recyclable and chemically stable, but it is significantly heavier, which means more fuel is consumed in transportation and more emissions are produced per kilometre of travel. For single-use on-the-go beverages, aluminum typically has a better overall environmental footprint than glass. For premium beverages with refillable bottle systems in place — where the same glass bottle is used many times before recycling — glass can be genuinely competitive. The context of use matters as much as the material itself.

What percentage of drink packaging actually gets recycled?

In the United States, approximately 25% of plastic beverage packaging is recycled despite the majority of it being technically recyclable. [5] Aluminum fares considerably better in markets with active deposit return schemes, where collection rates can exceed 85–90%. In parts of Europe where well-designed DRS programs operate, beverage container collection rates are significantly higher than in markets relying solely on curbside collection. In Canada, only 9% of the 4.4 million tonnes of plastic waste discarded in 2019 was recycled. [21] The gap between what is technically recyclable and what actually gets recycled through real-world systems is one of the central challenges facing eco-friendly drink packaging today.

What are Extended Producer Responsibility laws and how do they affect drink packaging?

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws shift the financial responsibility for end-of-life packaging management from local governments and taxpayers to the companies that produce and sell packaged goods. Under EPR frameworks, brands pay fees based on the volume of packaging they put on the market and how recyclable or reusable that packaging is. This creates a direct financial incentive to use less packaging, use more recyclable materials, and support collection infrastructure. Five US states have already enacted EPR laws for packaging. The EU, Canada, and Australia have comparable frameworks in place or in development. EPR laws are widely regarded by environmental policy researchers as one of the most effective regulatory tools for driving meaningful change in sustainable drink packaging practices, because they align financial incentives with environmental outcomes.

What is rPET and why does it matter?

rPET stands for recycled polyethylene terephthalate — in plain language, plastic produced from used bottles rather than from raw fossil-fuel-based materials. It matters for drink packaging sustainability because producing rPET generates substantially lower carbon emissions than producing virgin PET plastic, and it keeps plastic in productive use rather than sending it to landfill or incineration. A growing number of brands are increasing their rPET content to meet both voluntary targets and legally mandated recycled content requirements. Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling achieved 46% recycled content overall in 2024, with rPET as a central component. [10] The challenge is supply: the demand for food-grade recycled PET currently exceeds what the global recycling system can reliably produce, which means scaling up bottle-to-bottle recycling capacity is a practical priority, not just an aspiration.

What should I look for on packaging to know if it is genuinely sustainable?

The most reliable packaging labels are the How2Recycle label in the US and the On-Pack Recycling Label (OPRL) in the UK. Both are based on standardised testing of what local recycling infrastructure can actually process, and both give you clear guidance on how to dispose of a specific packaging item correctly. Beyond labels, look for brands that publish annual sustainability reports with data that has been independently verified by third parties, that show actual recycled content percentages rather than just future targets, and that actively support deposit return schemes in the markets where they operate. Be appropriately sceptical of vague terms like “eco-friendly” or “green packaging” on their own — without supporting numbers, they are not meaningful claims. Under the EU’s developing Green Claims Directive, such claims will need to be substantiated with evidence before they can be used in marketing.