Project update - 15/12/11
GreenBottle is environmentally superior packaging for liquid consumable products. GreenBottles are made from a (recycled) paper outer shell, with a thin, detachable plastic liner inside. The paper outer is compostable or recyclable, and the product has a much lower carbon footprint than equivalent plastic bottles.
This project covers the optimisation of the bottle design, development of technology to enable bottle production at scale and cost equal to plastic bottles, and development of programmes to disseminate information about and to market GreenBottle in its initial pilot market areas.
The project is based in the UK, in the town of Woodbridge, Suffolk where GreenBottle is based. Engineering work is mainly located in Manchester, the premises of our partner RTS Flexible Systems Ltd.
Customers with whom we are working include Asda/Walmart in the milk category; leading multinational consumer products companies for detergents and juice. Our product has potential application in all liquid consumable product categories across the EU and since it is significantly superior from an environmental stand point to both plastic bottles and laminated cartons could make an important positive contribution to the environmental impact of packaging wastes across Europe and beyond.
Expected and/or achieved results
- Development of liquids packaging with 1/3 the plastic and much lower carbon footprint than plastic bottles.
- Significant move away from non-renewable packaging materials (plastic) to recycled paper: target to recycle 5,520 tonnes in Year 1 of roll-out.
- Packaging developed for all major liquids categories; milk, juice, liquid detergents, potentially wine, water, food sauces/oils.
- Raw material sourcing, production and disposal all established within EU markets.
- Successful test market now completed with Asda/Walmart and agreement to roll out across all their UK stores from January 2012. This will deliver volume of 10 million bottles annually.
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