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Covid-19 has brought more than its fair share of woes. Not least has been its deleterious effect on the environment. How? Well, it’s sent consumption of fizzy drinks from single-use cans and plastic bottles through the roof. And it’s derailed plans for the UK’s biggest-ever initiative to ensure drinks packaging is recycled, the deposit return scheme.
In short, it’s been a disaster for the Earth’s oceans – where the amount of plastic waste is expected to triple in the next 20 years, according to a paper published last July in the journal Science.
In 2020, shoppers took home 561.7 million more single-use cans of cola, lemonade, fruit carbonates and mixers than they did in 2019, bringing total sales to 2.9 billion cans. More than 710.4 million plastic pop bottles were taken home, a rise of 102.6 million [Kantar 52 w/e 27 December 2020].
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Just like frying pans for cooking brekkie and bread knives for making sarnies, cocktail shakers have become essential household utensils during Covid-19. At least, that’s how it looks. Because, with their favourite drinking holes closed for much of the past year, thirsty Brits have been mixing cocktails at home with abandon. And that has sent sales of mixers sky high. The sector has grown in value over the past year by 29.6% to £307.1m [Kantar 52 w/e 27 December 2020].
That makes it the strongest-performing segment of the total soft drinks category, notes Kantar analyst Sam Plimmer. “The rise of the sector can only be linked to how in-home alcohol consumption increased throughout the Covid restrictions during the course of the year, meaning that complementary categories also stood to benefit,” he says. “In addition, more shoppers are buying spirits than wine for the first time, as shoppers expanded their alcohol repertoire owing particularly to NPD such as cream