Last month, my family took a day trip to Barsana, a small city in western Uttar Pradesh famous for its temples. We are a family of five, and while three of us (the majority) were uninterested in doing much temple-hopping, our parents held a veto. 

Anyway, as it happens on road trips, we stopped at a local dhaba to savour the obligatory dhaba-style dal and tandoori rotis. At the entrance, we noticed a life-sized banner for Campa, the aerated cola brand Reliance Industries acquired and revived three years ago. As a consumer beat reporter, I was not too surprised, but the rest of the lot were pretty excited to try a drink they had loved back in the day.

Divided by destination, united by Campa Cola.

The roadside dhaba we visited in Barsana, Photo: Aakriti Bhalla

View in Browser

Funnily enough, they even served us Campa in glass bottles, just like old times. 

That did surprise me, though. Weren’t we done with those glass bottles? I thought most companies had largely shifted to plastic, or PET, bottles. After all, glass bottles are cumbersome, both for the consumer and the beverage maker. You can’t carry them off, they are tricky to re-use, and they are expensive for the bottler.

Was this some marketing ploy to play on older customers’ nostalgia? 

I did some digging, and it turns out, it’s more a move born out of necessity. 

Beginning 1 April, 2025, the government has mandated beverage makers—including the likes of Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Campa, and Parle—to use e-PET (recycled PET) bottles for at least 30% of their yearly production. In fact, the government plans to increase this threshold by 10 percentage points each year, until by 2029, companies are using recycled plastic for 60% of their volume. 

The problem is, there doesn’t seem to be enough recycled plastic to go around.

From an environmental point of view, glass is certainly a good choice. One glass bottle can be reused about three to four times, says a consumer analyst with a brokerage firm, who wished to remain unnamed because they are not authorised to speak to the media.

But for companies, using this environment-friendly packaging comes at a price. Packaging makes up as much as 15–20% of the total cost of goods sold (COGS) in the segment.