By 2020, the global beverage industry is expected to reach a market share of $1.9 trillion, with the sector banking on plastic, metal, and glass packaging. But with thousands of brands producing hundreds of beverages every second, the environment is taking a serious hit, making sustainable production a necessity more than ever.
Fortunately, some leading global companies have been pushing for sustainable packaging and one of their first projects is to further the use of paper bottles for beverages.
The paper bottle community, launched by paper bottle company Paboco®, pioneered this initiative in 2015. One of its project partners, Carlsberg Group, has recently come up with two paper bottle prototypes called the “Green Fibre Bottle,” which will be used as containers for their beer. The fully recyclable bottles are composed of sustainably sourced wood fibers lined with either a recycled polyethylene terephthalate polymer film barrier or a 100 percent bio-based polyethylene furanoate polymer film barrier.
The Carlsberg Group has been leaning towards a more eco-friendly production scheme, and the creation of the paper bottle is only one of its many efforts in attaining this goal. The company has also created a Snap Pack technology that uses glue instead of plastic rings for multi-pack beers. This is set to reduce plastic waste globally by more than 1,200 metric tons (equivalent to 60 million plastic bags) a year. Aside from this, Carlsberg has switched to a “greener” green ink for its labels in order to improve the recyclability of their packaging as well as utilized recycled shrink wrapping, which has a 60 percent lower carbon impact than virgin shrink.
Another global brand that is part of the paper bottle community is the Coca-Cola Company. In line with the long-term goal of producing fully bio-based and recycled bottles, Coca-Cola has launched 300 bottles made of 25 percent plastic from marine waste collected during beach cleanups. With this initiative, the company aims to eliminate single-use plastic and boost the impact of recycling on a global scale.
Along with other project partners like L’Oreal and The Absolut Company, the paper bottle community challenges the current practices of the packaging industry. This global movement will continue to produce innovation after innovation of bottling solutions that should emphasize the importance of sustainability, affecting positive change in businesses and industries and, by extension, global communities.
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