COCA-COLA REVEALS THEIR NEW PAPER BOTTLES TO COMBAT PLASTIC WASTE
It’s no secret that plastic pollution has become a huge threat to mother earth. With more and more people spreading awareness and demanding more sustainable options, more brands are making the responsible decisions which involves big changes to their products.
After being found to be the worst polluting brand in the world for multiple years in a row now, Coca-Cola decided to reconsider its business practices and has now released a prototype of their sustainable paper bottles. The company has high hope that their new sustainable bottles might help them drop down the list and become less harmful for the environment.
Coca-Cola developed their new bottles in partnership with Danish company Paboco, or Paper Bottle Company, which specialises in recyclable packaging for products. After several challenges to make the paper bottle as effective as plastic, it is finally ready for a trial.
In order to prevent one of the most obvious struggle, the liquid from destroying the paper bottle, plastic is still used in the making to create a thin liner between the paper and the liquid. Michael Michelsen, business development manager at Paboco explained that, “It’s going to be a bio-based barrier, that's really something minimal, that keeps that food safe, that keeps the product safe at the same time.”
Another challenge the team had to face was dealing with added pressure needed when bottling soda and to find a way to prevent gas from leaving or anything falling into the soda.
The company dedicated seven years in developing a sustainable paper bottle after facing many challenges and trying to find solutions for many factors that includes if the ink can be printed directly on the bottle, or can the paper be easily changed to fit new bottle designs?
The first trails of Coca-Cola’s paper bottles will be tested in Hungary this summer to sell Coca-Cola’s fruit drink Adez. The trial will include 2,000 bottles sold in a local retail chain. Michelsen added “We have a good understanding already of what the bottle will go through as we put it into the real world. But there is a certain point where you just can't design yourself out of this at a desk, right?”