Your bottle of Coke is getting greener: Equatorial Coca-Cola Bottling Company (ECCBC), Coca-Cola’s official bottling partner in Africa, has signed an agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) for a EUR 64 mn loan to boost climate-friendly measures and increase plastic recycling across its operations in 13 countries on the continent, according to an IFC statement.

Who is funding the loan? Under the agreement, the IFC will provide a EUR 52 mn loan from its own account, EUR 8.5 mn from the Canada IFC Blended Climate Finance Program, and EUR 3.5 mn from the Alafaq Aljadida Middle East and North Africa Private Sector Development program.

Where’s the money going? The loan will cover refurbishing or replacing the beverage maker’s production lines, establishing a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) collection and recycling program in Algeria, replacing coolers in its distribution network for energy savings, installing solar panels at bottling plants, and piloting solar powered retail coolers in Ghana and Morocco. The strategy also includes initiatives to lower the company’s water and energy consumption in water-stressed areas like North Africa, according to a statement by ECCBC.

About the company: ECCBC is the official Coca-Cola bottler in 13 North and West African countries, according to the company’s website. It currently operates seven bottling plants and 44 production lines in Africa, serving over 160 mn consumers in its countries of operation, according to the IFC statement.

REMEMBER- Plastic consumption is a problem in MENA: Plastic consumption growth is most prominent in emerging countries in Africa and Asia. The 38 member OECD countries will still be the leading producers of plastic waste, though, producing 238 kg of waste per person each year in 2060, while non-OECD countries are estimated to produce less than half of that (77 kg).