A closed loop revolution? DS Smith launches zero waste returnable pack at BrauBeviale 2018

15 Nov 2018 --- DS Smith is delivering a revolution in the sustainable development of beverage packaging with Fillbee – a returnable pack made from post-consumer waste that fits inside reusable crates, yet can also be stacked without a crate. Fillbee can accommodate four or six beers and be adapted to any shape of bottle. The move follows the EU policy announced earlier this year that all plastic packaging on the EU market will be recyclable or reusable by 2030. PackagingInsights gained an insight into this new launch, set to hit the market in spring 2019, at BrauBeviale, held this week in Nuremberg, Germany.

The DS Smith Plastics design team in Belgium sought to design a solution whereby returnable crates could be combined with returnable packs for four or six beers.

Today, breweries must accommodate returnable bottle crates that cater for loose bottles, as well as one-way packs using cardboard. Therefore, breweries have to invest in two types of filling lines. The Fillbee returnable packs fit into regular returnable crates so that the bottles can be placed directly into the baskets on the existing filling line for loose bottles, thus simplifying the production line complexity and lowering investments.

A further benefit of the Fillbee concept is that no corrugated carbon is needed for consumers who want to purchase a four or six pack of beer.

“People often ask to have six and four packs of beer, but these are usually made from corrugated materials. The disadvantage is that all the bottles are touching each other and this does not protect the bottles. Also, from a sustainability point of view, a returnable pack is more advantageous,” Rudi Raskin, DS Smith, tells PackagingInsights at the show.

Further protection for bottles
Raskin explains that as crates stand at the moment, as well as cardboard packaging for packs of four or six beers, the way in which glass bottles are often touching puts the bottles at risk.

“The big advantage of this crate, when used together with the Fillbee, is that you can use it for single bottles and the bottles are not touching each other. The bottles are always protected, even when the Fillbee is taken home. Within the Fillbee, the bottles are protected,” he says.

Fitting into existing Deposit Return Schemes
The Fillbee was designed to fit into a closed loop deposit scheme. The company further touts the sustainability credentials of the innovation, noting that when combined with PET bottles, they are 100 percent reusable and 100 percent recyclable – thereby eliminating consumer waste.

“There shouldn’t be much change regarding how the crates are returned if they are within a model that has the Fillbee. Most of the time, the crates are returned already using a deposit return system,” says Raskin.

The beverage packaging industry has seen a heightened focus on circularity, especially in light of wider sustainably pressures on the packaging industry as a whole. Waste prevention is the most efficient way to reduce CO2 emissions, according to DS Smith, especially in an industry that transports large volumes of product in an array of different packaging types.

Schemes that incentivize consumers to return their beverage PET bottles have been in place in many European countries. The automated machines, coined Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) use 360-degree scanning recognition system to identify, segregate, collect and process waste drink containers, creating a resource from recyclates that would otherwise likely be incinerated or sent to landfill. 

In Oslo, for example, it is estimated that 93 percent of all single-use packaging is collected via DRS’s. Germany and the Netherlands are also among the countries that cite successful recycling rates from DRS systems.

The UK has also been investigating the schemes as part of a larger bid to increase the country's recycling rates. UK supermarket Iceland has embarked on a six month trial of the technology, for example. 

A further circular innovation in the beverage industry comes from Lightweight Containers, founder of the KeyKeg and UniKeg system. The kegs are innovative in that they are made from lightweight plastic, as opposed to steel or wood, thereby reducing CO2 emissions and costs during travel. They are also almost entirely circular: Old kegs become new kegs. The company has recently branched out into the growing alcohol-free market, in a launch that was also announced at this year’s BrauBeviale.

Watch the full video with Rankin at this years BrauBeviale here.

By Laxmi Haigh