Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) has introduced CanCollar an innovative paperboard packaging solution, for multipack cans in Spain.

The move supports the bottler’s work, in partnership with Coca-Cola, to remove all unnecessary or hard to recycle plastic from its portfolio, avoiding the use of more than 11,000 tonnes of virgin plastic a year across Western Europe.

Through collaboration with WestRock, a global company that provides its customers with sustainable differentiated packaging solutions, CCEP will start to use the CanCollar paperboard can ring technology in the Balearic Islands, replacing the current Hi-cone solution and saving more than 18 tonnes of plastic annually.

Coca-Cola European Partners has invested 2.6 million euros in its Barcelona plant to support this initiative.

The installation of WestRock’s CanCollar Fortuna manufacturing equipment will enable multipack cans to be grouped in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way, with a process that does not require the use of glue or adhesives.

“The agreement with WestRock exemplifies our clear commitment to reduce plastic in our secondary packaging,” said Joe Franses, Vice President of Sustainability of CCEP.

“By the end of 2020, we will have removed more than 4,000 tonnes of hard to recycle plastic from our secondary packaging in Western Europe. It’s through collaborating on innovative packaging solutions like CanCollar that we are able to do this.”