• San Francisco Chronicle, Wednesday, September 28, 2011 10:15 AM

Now it's about the bottles as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo battle it out over sustainability. In 2009 the Coca-Cola Co. said it would sell its Dasani water products in bottles containing up to 30% sugarcane-based polyethylene terephthalate plastic, or PET, calling the "PlantBottle" as the latest in eco-friendly food packaging. Then PepsiCo in March said it had developed PET containers that were 100% petroleum-free.

"There's a lot of pressure. Everyone's always followed Pepsi and Coke," said Ed Glatzer, director for commercial development for IHS, a global consulting firm. "Sustainability is the catch word."

Plastics account for about 4% of global petroleum use, and bioplastics has changed that yet, but researchers predict the market will skyrocket in the next several years because of technological advancements, new manufacturing plants and increased interest in bioplastic packaging. Global demand for plant-based plastics is estimated to reach 600,000 metric tons by 2013, a 26-fold jump in five years, according to a 2008 report by the market research firm The Freedonia Group.

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