Last September, Coca-Cola announced plans to build a $60 million recycling plant that turns recovered plastic bottles into new bottles for Coke products. But as Scott Vitters, Coke's director of sustainable packaging, explains, that kind of bottle-to-bottle approach isn't always possible. So Coke has found a surprising new use for all that plastic - it's making t-shirts out of it. (To listen to our conversation with Scott, click here.)

SLM: So tell us about these PET t-shirts. How do they fit into Coke's sustainability strategy?

Scott: A key focus of our sustainable packaging approach is to design packages from materials that can be used again and advancing the development of economically and environmentally sustainable markets for reusing these materials. Today the end market demand for reusing our core packages is very strong. Coca-Cola has helped to foster this demand by advancing technologies for enabling greater use of recycled material back into our packages and purchasing products made from recycled beverage containers. Our "Drink to Wear" t-shirts and entire recycled merchandise is part of this commitment.

SLM: Most consumers don't necessarily associate Coke with the apparel business. How did you first become involved with fiber manufacturers in developing new products from recycled materials?

Scott: Coca-Cola has been in the licensed merchandise business and a purchaser of products made from recycled fibers for many years. We just hadn't been able to successfully combine the two together. Given rising consumer environmental interests, we felt this was the perfect time to try new product line that merged trend with consciousness.

SLM: The beverage industry has taken a lot of heat for the proliferation of plastic bottles in the waste stream. Would you say this product line is partly an effort on Coke's part to win over consumers who are concerned about that issue?

Scott: I'd say the product line is more part of an effort to remind consumers that small steps - like recycling a beverage bottle - can go a long way toward helping preserve our environment. The true environmental benefit of these shirts isn't that they are made from bottles but rather their ability to connect with consumers and help promote recycling. And since a lot of consumers still seem confused as to whether plastic PET bottles and caps are recyclable, the shirts also help by serving as an educational tool.

The demand for used plastic beverage bottles is strong today thanks to the development of robust end use markets, including Coca-Cola's investment to help build the world's largest bottle-to-bottle PET recycling facility here in the U.S. What really is needed today is more focus on putting sustainable recycling programs in place in communities and encouraging everyone to participate. Coca-Cola is firmly committed to helping advance this effort and has launched a recycling business with the aim of recycling 100% of the bottles and cans used in the U.S.

SLM: Why not just take all that plastic that's going into t-shirts and make new Coke bottles out of them?

Scott: We've poured a significant amount of investment into bottle-to-bottle recycling since launching the first ever plastic bottle with recycled content in 1991. The facility opening later this year in South Carolina, for example, will be our sixth investment in a closed-loop plant. We've been able to improve the technology for creating beverage bottles out of used ones so that they can successfully compete both financially and environmentally with other products. But it is important to recognize the role that fiber products like t-shirts and carpets have played in helping build economically sustainable markets for recycled bottles to date.

Today we don't have the capacity to use all the PET collected back into our own bottle-to-bottle plants in the U.S. There are also still times when it is more efficient to use bottles back into non-food products based on the condition of the bottles collected. By expanding our direct investment in recycling plants and continuing to improve the effectiveness of closed loop recycling technologies we are working to further overcome these barriers.

In addition, many of the apparel products we sell are made outside the U.S. In these markets the amount of beverages we sell in plastic bottles today is lower which makes it difficult to sustain a large bottle -to-bottle recycling plant. However, less costly fiber operations often can be successfully maintained in these markets and serve as an important initial resource toward building an economically viable local market for recycled bottles. As PET bottle use grows in these markets we evaluate the potential for ultimately investing in new bottle-to-bottle plants.

SLM: What happens to the t-shirts when they hit end of life? Can they then be recycled?

Scott: This is where the fiber industry is doing a lot of interesting work. We're very pleased to see their advances in clothing recycling - it's really reminiscent of our own initial efforts developing the bottle-to-bottle recycling process. By and large, you don't see clothing being recycled today - but there are efforts currently under way that are starting to demonstrate the economic feasibility of recycled-content fiber products.

There are some people who want to challenge this process because it isn't yet optimized. For example, fiber might currently have to ship to Asia for recovery and manufacture and then sent back to Western markets. But I think it's a mistake to criticize these efforts, because you have to begin the learning process in existing facilities before you can build the necessary infrastructure for a local-based model. That's the process we at Coke had to go through with our bottle-to-bottle manufacturing program.

SLM: By what yardstick do you measure the success of Coke's PET merchandising program?

Scott: We've learned so much, particularly around the kind of environmental messaging consumers are interested in seeing on the t-shirts. We've also seen a correlation between the positive reaction to these products and an increase in beverage sales, so there's a strong business case for the program. It's certainly an important component of our sustainability story as it relates to packaging - but it's not the only thing.

SLM: What do these t-shirts say?

Scott: It's a whole range of slogans, from "Make Your Plastic Fantastic" to "Love Your Litter" to "Do-Over." We also make t-shirts that just say "Smile" or "Happy." We're making it a core component of a broader Coke campaign that we call "living positively."