Paeroa\u2019s L&P bottle statue has been temporarily altered, with the landmark now split down the middle \u2014 one half brown, the other clear \u2014 following a change to the soft drink\u2019s packaging.<\/p>\n
The 7m tall roadside attraction has been re\u2011skinned for a limited time after L&P began replacing its traditional brown plastic bottles with clear plastic, the first major packaging change in the drink\u2019s 119\u2011year history.<\/p>\n
The company has said the move was intended to improve recyclability, with clear PET plastic easier to recycle in New Zealand than coloured plastic.<\/p>\n
Coca-Cola director of marketing Tracey Evans said L&P was a Kiwi icon and that any changes to the packaging were not taken lightly.<\/p>\n
“This is exactly why we\u2019re making the shift to clear plastic because it gives every bottle a better chance of being recycled back into another bottle. It\u2019s a meaningful step that helps future-proof a classic.”<\/p>\n
The landmark statue has been split between brown and clear to reflect L&P\u2019s shift to more recyclable plastic bottles for the first time in over a century. (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n
Hauraki District Mayor Toby Adams said the community would 100% still recognise the town’s landmark with the temporary change.<\/p>\n
“I’ll be surprised if we sit here today and don’t see people coming to take their photos,” he told Breakfast.<\/p>\n
Adams said he had “some pre shots” of L&P and could confirm the drink still tasted the same despite the change.<\/p>\n
The Paeroa bottle statue, a long\u2011standing tourist attraction, has previously been repainted and modified but will now reflect the packaging shift by displaying both versions side by side.<\/p>\n
L&P has used brown bottles for decades, dating back to its origins in the early 1900s when naturally carbonated water from the \u014chinemuri Spring was mixed with lemon juice.<\/p>\n
Clear plastic bottles will progressively replace brown plastic across all bottle sizes.<\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including severe flooding in Wellington, and Christopher Luxon\u2019s digging in. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paeroa\u2019s L&P bottle statue has been temporarily altered, with the landmark now split down the middle \u2014 one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[138,9001,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-387958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-business","tag-hamilton-waikato","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}