On the whole, major corporations like Coca Cola have a hard time getting any greener than greenwashing. It’s not that they don’t make the effort, necessarily, but the impact of huge scale sales is hard to improve without significant work. Coca Cola, for example, transports their high-fructose blends and bottled waters (already an eco-sin) all around the world, and has been linked to human rights issues and hindering water access internationally. So though they’ve announced plans to green their operations, it’s been hard to put much faith in the results.

Their latest effort, however, does seem like a step in the right direction—the direction in which they could actually reduce their carbon footprint in a meaningful way. It’s new plastic bottles called PlantBottles, and they’re made from a blend of petroleum and plant-based ingredients, reducing the company’s overall petroleum use. Coca Cola hasn’t come out with any specific figures for the PlantBottle line yet, but they do say that the overall carbon footprint for the PlantBottles is lower than their traditional petroleum PET bottle counterparts, and the PlantBottles are also just as recyclable as the bottles currently on shelves.

Those in Denmark can already pick up a PlantBottle of Coca Cola, Coca Cola Light or Coca Cola Zero, and a variety of Coca Cola products will be available in PlantBottle packaging in Vancouver, Canada when the 2010 Olympics come to town. Here in the U.S., we won’t be seeing the new bottles until January, and then only in select cities in the Western states.

Although there are obvious environmental positives to any company reducing the amount of petroleum it uses, the PlantBottle line isn’t without potential eco-pitfalls. For one thing, the plant-based materials in question are  sugar cane and molasses, two crops that are known to be detrimental to the earth (although WWF officials claim that the agricultural practices for the materials have been verified by third parties). Another problem is that the greener packaging for bottled water may move Americans away from the more beneficial idea of using reusable water bottles. Still, if consumers around the world aren’t ready to give up their cola, at least the PlantBottle line will allow them to guzzle a little greener.

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