Cyprus Mail 16 August 2020 - by Andrew Rosenbaum
A consortium including some of the largest international producers of bottled drinks – Unilever, Diageo and Pepsico – is ready to replace glass drinks bottles with paper ones.
These companies, which together represent more than $100 billion in global beverage sales, have joined with Pulpex Limited, a new world-leading sustainable packaging technology company, to ensure that the technology can be used in every area of life. More major companies are expected to join the consortium shortly.
“Joining forces to develop and test paper bottles is an incredibly exciting step forward, and we’re delighted to be working together to tackle one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time,” comments Unilever Chief R&D Officer Richard Slater.
Every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans. There may now be around 5.25 trillion macro and microplastic pieces floating in the open ocean. Weighing up to 269,000 tonnes. Plastics consistently make up 60 to 90 per cent of all marine debris studied.
The consortium was brought together by charities consultant PilotLight. The consortium partners are each expecting to launch their own branded paper bottles, based on Pulpex Limited’s design and technology, in 2021.
Pulpex bottles are renewable, made using materials from 100 per cent renewable feedstocks and responsibly managed forests, according to a statement by Pulpex. They are also PET-free, avoiding the use of plastics produced from virgin petrochemical feedstocks which have a high carbon footprint. And they are Recyclable, with no new infrastructure required to enable roadside pickup and standard recycling with no new infrastructure required
These biodegradable pulp bottles have the potential to deliver significant improvements on the carbon footprint of glass bottles (90 per cent savings) and PET (30 per cent savings). Using them permits the replacement of glass bottles and removes harmful plastic fibres from the environment.
Global whisky brand Johnnie Walker has announced, through its parent company Diageo, that it will release a limited edition of Johnnie Walker whisky using bottles made of paper rather than glass. According to Diageo, it is the world’s first plastic-free paper-based spirits bottle. The paper will come from sustainably-sourced wood pulp, and the whisky will be launched in 2021.
Beer-producer Carlsberg, which is not part of the consortium, is independently producing paper bottles for the consumption of its beverages.
In October last year, Absolut Vodka (owned by drinks conglomerate Pernod Ricard which also owns a few whisky distilleries) partnered with Coca Cola, L’Oreal and Carlsberg to design and create scalable paper bottles with Paboco, a paper packaging company. Paboco features a proprietary bottle base technology that uses the fibre properties to stay intact when exposed to high pressure.
In May 2019, the EU Commission passed the Single-Use Plastics directive which bans plastic bottles, straws, etc. This will be coming to Cyprus soon, so it’s not too early to think about paper bottles for drinks here.
