Coca-Cola's Bottles Go Green; PepsiCo Is Working on Another 'Craft' Brand

PepsiCo and Coca-Cola are trying to appeal to customers who typically eschew big soda companies. According to the Chicago Tribune, Pepsi wants to launch a line of "craft" fountain sodas that are made with sugar instead of controversial ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, while Coca-Cola plans to use bottles made entirely from plant materials.

PepsiCo's soda line, called Stubborn Soda, will include more adventurous flavors like black cherry with tarragon, orange hibiscus, pineapple cream, and agave vanilla cream. The announcement comes soon after after Pepsi debuted another "craft" soda line called Caleb's Kola in October. A spokesperson tells the newspaper that Stubborn Soda is currently in an "incubation" phrase and that the "company doesn't yet have any restaurant clients to announce."

Coca-Cola is also stepping up its game by attempting to become more eco-friendly. Quartz writes that the company recently unveiled a plastic soda bottle made entirely from plant materials at food and technology conference Expo Milano. Instead of using fossil fuels or other nonrenewable materials, the company "converts sugarcane and waste from the sugar manufacturing process into the materials" to make the special plastic.

Coca-Cola says it has been experimenting with the technology since 2009 and that previous versions of the plant bottle were made from only 30 percent plant-based materials. It claims in a press release that these bottles will help save more than 315,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year. Coca-Cola hopes to introduce 25 billion of these bottles by 2020.