The Brief

Plastic bottles are among the most prevalent sources of pollution found on our beaches. The extremely slow decomposition rate of plastic bottles leaves them to drift on the ocean for untold years. When plastics break down, they don't biodegrade, they photodegrade. This means the materials break down to smaller fragments. These readily absorb toxins which contaminate soil, waterways, and animals upon digestion. As part of its global sustainability program, Coke is looking for more and better solutions to reduce the use of plastic and increase re-use and recycling in Asia. Our challenge was to find low-cost and practical ways to upcycle Coke plastic bottles and give them a new lease of life. These repurposed Coke bottles needed to fit with Coke’s brand image and spirit of spreading happiness.

This project did not require new technology, but involved adapting existing technology imaginatively in order to give Coke bottles multiple lives. We created 16 caps designs that would transform the used Coke bottles into water squirters, paintbrushes, bubble-blowers, pencil sharpeners, rattles, whistles, night-lights, dumbbells, soap dispensers, soy-sauce bottles, ketchup bottles, salt and pepper shakers and even plant water-sprays. Some caps (like the night-lights, dumb-bell, water-squirter, paint-brush, rattle, whistle and pencil sharpener) were designed, moulded and tested from scratch. Other caps (like sauce bottle caps, soap dispensers and plant sprays), already existed in different forms but had to be adapted to suit Coke bottles.

We started with a test launch of the 2nd life caps in Ho Chi Minh city on 28 March, 2014. Based on the success of that launch, we’re planning to give away 40,000 caps all over Vietnam. The 2nd life caps will then be rolled out all across Asia.