PET, rPET: a sustainable future Click here to subscribe
2010 green bottles
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t the end of 2010, Water Innovation published its top 20 future-friendly bottles on www.foodbev.com, accompanied by a gallery and a movie on YouTube. Here we review some of those 20 packaging initiatives.
Reduce, reduce, reduce ‘Reduce, reduce, reduce’ was the war-cry throughout 2010 with lightweighting going perhaps as far as it could go for bottles. Some stunning design and engineering solutions took the weight of preforms and the height of necks (and closures) about as low as they might possibly go.
Replace, replace, replace So next came ‘replace, replace, replace’ with more and more brands opting to use increasing amounts of recycled PET (rPET) and some choosing to replace traditional petrochemical-
derived PET with a proportion (and sometimes all) of material derived from plants. Bio-degradable and compostable solutions continued as a limited trend too, but with the realisation that until more industrial-scale composting facilities exist, this remains an idea still perhaps ahead of its time.
Recover, recycle, re-use Of course, if you want to re-use PET, you need to recover it, so ‘recover, recycle, re-use’ became the next mantra. We still look back at the multicompany PET-2-PET initiative in Austria to see best practice in action, but look to initiatives which educate consumers at
Every time rPET is used, it uses a bottle that otherwise would have ended up in a landfill somewhere point of purchase as the biggest and best way forward.
The three ‘r’s At school in the UK we used to talk about the education essentials of ‘reading (w)riting and (a)rythmetic - but now the environmental lobby ‘owns’ all the ‘r’ words.
consider that old material can have an efficient and effective second life. And talking of education, take a close look at a couple of those brands where it is the communication with the consumers which is perhaps the most important initiative. While governments slowly move to ensure that appropriate collection systems are in place, they stand little chance of proper success without consumer support. From CocaCola Japan’s twistable I Lohas bottle to brands such as Nestlé Waters’ Re-source, or Echo Beverages’ Eco Water, effective consumer engagement may prove as important as rPET itself.
We started with ‘reduce’, added ‘replace’ and moved swiftly on to ‘recover, recycle, re-use’. But we are also seeing: ‘refresh’ being a strong link between what water essentially does and the new approach to packaging; ‘rethink’ when it comes to using plants rather than oil; and ‘revive’ when we
Of course, talking of all the ‘r’ words, if you are a frequent visitor to FoodBev.com or a subscriber to Water Innovation then you’ll know that we regularly and reliably report, review and revitalise all that’s new, inspiring and innovative in the bottled water industry.
Easy Bottle from San Benedetto, Italy: First carbon neutral bottle in Italy
Echo Water from Echo Beverages, United States: 100% rPET, consumer education
The following selection is in alphabetical order, and not a ranking.
Belu, UK: 50% rPET UK based Belu, which is 100% carbon neutral and claims to have introduced the country’s first plastic bottle made from corn rather than oil, launched a new 50cl bottle made from 50% recycled plastic - delivering a 46% carbon saving compared to its virgin PET equivalent.
30 SPECIAL REPORT
Drench from Britvic, UK: Local rPET
Britvic’s Drench was the first to use UK-sourced post consumer recycled plastic in its bottles. The inclusion San Benedetto’s Acqua Minerale Echo Water was one of the first in the of local (UK) rPET in Drench bottles Easy bottle is the first carbon neutral industry with a 100% rPET bottle, ensures less energy is used in mineral water bottle and the only one bottles and sells only locally to reduce manufacturing, reducing each of its kind in Italy. the environmental impact of shipping bottle’s carbon footprint by water. The label clearly educates the approximately 6%. consumer on their recycling role. © Water Innovation 2011. Reproduced with the kind permission of FoodBev Media - www.foodbev.com For details about syndication and licensing please contact the marketing team on 01225 327890.
www.foodbev.com/water Issue 64 - January · February 2011