It’s Clear: Say Good-Bye to Sprite’s Green Bottle

After more than 60 years, Sprite is ditching its signature green bottle, replacing it with a more environmentally friendly clear container. Starting Monday, the lemon-lime soda will also get an updated logo and packaging design, but its familiar emerald hue will still be used on the label.

The current bottle contains green polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is typically only recycled into single-use items like clothing, and not other bottles. “When recycled, clear PET Sprite bottles can be remade into [new] bottles, helping drive a circular economy for plastic,” Julian Ochoa, chief executive officer of R3CYCLE — a recycling company that works with Coca-Cola Consolidated, the soft drink company’s largest US bottler — said in a statement Wednesday.

Sprite’s current green bottles can’t be recycled into other bottles, only single-use items like clothing and carpet.

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Sprite has already switched from green bottles in some foreign markets, and specific flavors, like cherry and sugar-free, come only in clear plastic.

It’s promoting the change with a 30-second commercial featuring NBA stars Anthony Edwards and Trae Young.

Sprite’s parent company, Coca-Cola, also announced Wednesday that bottled water brand Dasani will be made from 100% recycled PET plastic. The move will reduce plastic waste by 20 million pounds compared with what was used in 2019, according to the release. Other Coke-owned beverages that use green bottles — like Fresca, Mello Yello and Seagram’s — will also “go clear” in the months to come, CNN reported.

Fresca, Seagram’s and Mello-Yello will also switch to clear plastic bottles.

Coca-Cola

In February 2021, the company launched a new 13.2-ounce Coke bottle, the first made from 100% recycled plastic. 

Through its World Without Waste initiative, announced in 2018, Coke aims to use at least 50% recycled material in its bottles and cans by 2030.