Coca-Cola Teams for PixieDrone Waste Collector
The Coca-Cola Company in Canada is supporting a new way to tackle plastics floating in the Great Lakes region: drones.
The company is partnering with non-profit Pollution Probe and its Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup initiative, serving as a sponsor for the PixieDrone remote-controlled mobile waste collector. The drone targets floating debris — including plastic, glass, metal, and paper — and can collect about 42 gallons of waste with a six-hour charge.
The drone was tested on Lake Simcoe in Barrie, Ontario, and will be used at other locations across the Great Lakes region starting in the spring of next year.
The Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup initiative currently operates at more than 150 sites across the Great Lakes, and the PixieDrone will join over 135 other plastic capture technologies already deployed.
Avi Yufest, senior director of public affairs at Coca-Cola, noted that the company recognizes its responsibility to help address the plastic waste crisis: “Projects like this, in addition to packaging innovations and recycling efforts, are one of the ways we are working to help keep our waterways and environment clean from plastic debris.”