Alpla cuts Austrian mineral water company’s carbon impact with returnable PET bottle

04 May 2022 --- Alpla has developed a new returnable PET bottle together with Vöslauer, an Austrian mineral water company. The bottle reduces carbon emissions by around 30% and bottle weight by 90% compared to reusable glass bottles. The one-liter bottles are now available in stores. 

Resource-conserving, light, stable and visually appealing – the packaging solutions and recycling company says it has realized the “first” modern returnable PET bottle for the Austrian market together with Vöslauer. 

“A higher recycled PET (rPET) share is planned for the future and the first successful tests have already taken place,” Rainer Widmar, managing director, Central and Eastern Europe at Alpla, tells PackagingInsights. 

Following the 2018 introduction of a climate-friendly bottle made entirely of rPET, the two family-owned enterprises are now rolling out their next innovative solution – a one-liter returnable PET bottle. 

Recycled PET
The returnable PET bottle is refilled, so it has criteria to meet. For example, the bottle is more robust, which is currently technically feasible with a proportion of up to 30% rPET, explains Widmar. 

“The bottom is reinforced and there is a special two-piece closure. The biggest technical challenge for any reusable bottle is the washing process, with temperatures up to 59 °C,” he adds.

“The biggest technical challenge for any reusable bottle is the washing process, with temperatures up to 59°C,” says Widmar.The bottle, which bears the Austrian Ecolabel, is made of fully recyclable PET monomaterial with a recyclate proportion of 30%. Going through at least 12 usage cycles, the bottles are estimated to remain in use for three to four years. 

The bottle was unveiled on April 20 in the presence of Austria’s environment minister Leonore Gewessler and Alexander Egit, managing director of Greenpeace in Central and Eastern Europe.

Climate change answers
In this model, consumers bring their empty returnable PET bottles back to the retailer just like they do with their returnable glass bottles and hand them back at the deposit machine, explains Widmar. 

“Nothing changes in handling for end consumers, but also for retailers,” he says. 

“From the consumer’s point of view, returnable beverages on the beverage shelf is one of the answers to climate change. Deposit containers have therefore developed very positively in recent years.”

“Especially in urban areas, where people are increasingly shopping without a car, returnable PET is the light alternative to returnable glass, reducing the carbon footprint by approximately 30% compared to the returnable glass alternative.”

Low weight advantages 
People want to consume environmentally sustainable products but Widmar stresses that although returnable PET is the optimum packaging solution, there wasn’t “a single product of this kind” in the Austrian market until now. 

“The returnable PET bottle developed together with Vöslauer illustrates how demand, a sense of responsibility, a hunger for innovation and technological expertise can reduce the carbon footprint,” he continues.

Furthermore, the low weight has a positive influence on the production, shipment and storage of the containers. With the introduction of the returnable PET bottle, Vöslauer will make an annual saving of approximately 400 metric tons of material and 420 metric tons of CO2, says the company.The bottle’s low weight has a positive influence on its climate impact.

Alpla in the news
Relatedly, Alpla Group will increase its annual recycling volume in Germany to 75,000 metric tons of PET bottles after agreeing to acquire recycling company Texplast from the FROMM Group and all of its shares in the joint venture PET Recycling Team Wolfen. 

PET recyclate is in hot demand as brands in Europe prepare for increasingly stringent circular economy regulations. The EU’s Single Use Plastics Directive imposes a 90% collection rate for plastic beverage bottles by 2029 and a minimum of 25% recycled plastic in PET bottles from 2025, rising to 30% from 2030.

Meanwhile, Alpla is supporting NIDSI, a German NGO, as it sets up recycling centers in Nepal under the project name ReValue to improve waste management in the country. The global packaging solutions and recycling specialist has been supporting NIDISI since the end of 2021. 

The company supports technologically innovative organizations that support countries lacking necessary infrastructure for waste collection systems. NIDISI, which is based in Berlin, Germany, initiates social development projects that focus on education, menstruation health and hygiene, water and recycling in Nepal.

By Natalie Schwertheim