For those who are around here often, we seem to be spending a pile of time lately obsessing with beverages and the bottles they come in. There's a good reason and it's not just because we are asking for a friend whose alcohol intake has escalated under covid. It's because beverage bottles - both alcoholic and nonalcoholic - are one of our planet's greatest litterers, and the makers of beverages are increasingly focused on better environmental packaging for their beverages.
The focus on beverage packaging innovation is driven by consumer demand, competitive differentiation and I suspect future legislative changes around responsibility for packaging. The importance of these changes can't be understated, both for the environment and for the future of design.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE SHIFTS IS UNDERPINNED BY THE NUMBER OF BEVERAGE MAKERS GETTING DIRECTLY INVOLVED WITH PACKAGERS IN JOINT VENTURES. WHILE THIS IS PARTLY BECAUSE OF THE WAY THE WORLD WORKS IN INNOVATION, IT IS ALSO BECAUSE PACKAGING DESIGN IS CHANGING TO INCORPORATE THE IP IN THE PACKAGING MATERIALS INNOVATION.
What something is made of and how recyclable, carbon neutral, microplastic friendly, chemically clean etc it is now counts. Last week, it was all about design and no consideration for anything environmental. Now businesses like Garcon Wines, Frugalpac, Johnnie Walker are making packaging materials central to design. And as each new design innovation emerges, it exposes the weaknesses of competition.
Nothing is perfect. What is perfect is companies being way more transparent about what is in their products, how they are made, the environmental & health safety of those products and how they decompose (or not).
Johnnie Walker Black, one of the world's most cultivated brands set's has just joined the new packaging design fight with a new high tech paper-based bottle. Diageo, the makers of Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, and Guinness, have announced that they are launching a new partnership with Pilot Lite, a venture management company, to launch Pulpex Limited, a new sustainable-packaging company.
Beer makers Carlsberg are also working on a paper beer bottle called Green Fiber Beer Bottle. They currently have two prototypes are made from wood fibre which are fully recyclable, but both still have a thin plastic inner barrier and they are working towards a solution without plastic.
While Coke is moving to a 100% rPET by 2025, Pepsico purchased Sodastream in 2018 and is focused on moving away from single use plastic entirely - transitioning to cans and recyclable glass in some countries.
Seriously. It still needs a plastic coating to stop the water soaking the paper. Wonder how long that will hold the alcohol. Or is that the purpose - you have to drink it within a certain period of time or you risk loosing your bottle of booze - thus more sales. . lol. That thin plastic layer is worse than a glass bottle. Glass can be recycled again and again and again but I guess is costly. These new paper/plastic bottles will end up in the ocean for sure unless we change how we dispose of waste. Thursday, 20 August 2020