Coke-Pepsi green-bottle war escalates

Two years after Coca-Cola unveiled a bottle made partly from plant materials, PepsiCo says it is introducing a better one, the first made entirely from plant-based, fully renewable resources. Coke’s PlantBottle is made of up to 30 percent plant sugars.

Pepsi’s bottle is made from materials including switch grass, pine bark, and corn husks. PepsiCo plans to begin making the bottles next year; it did not say which brands will get the bottle first. The company says the bottle looks and feels like existing beverage containers.

Meanwhile, Coca-Cola’s bottle is available in nine countries and is expected to reach more than a dozen other markets this year. More than 2.5 billion PlantBottles have reached the marketplace, which Coca-Cola says equates to saving about 3 million gallons of gasoline.