Blue Ocean Closures and Pacobo craft “first market-ready” paper bottle and fiber-based cap combination

Blue Ocean Closures and Danish machine manufacturer Paboco have co-created “industry’s first market-ready” paper bottle and fiber-based cap combination, expected to go on sale early next year. 

Paboco, which developed and launched its flagship paper bottle packaging, will now market a product line equipped with fiber caps.

The package, including its cap, has a total weight of less than 16 g, with an HDPE barrier weighing below 2 g, aligning with Paboco’s focus on using a minimum amount of materials in manufacturing. 

With the bottle’s thin barrier, the combined package is recyclable in paper waste streams.

“The combination of a fiber-based closure and a fiber-based bottle for consumer packaging has thus far not been available so this is a first of its kind packaging solution to be introduced to the market.”

“Both Blue Ocean Closures and Paboco are in continuous production and the solution is available for select users at the start of 2025 for consumers in Europe,” Ola Tönnberg, chief commercial officer at Blue Ocean Closures, tells Packaging Insights.

“The fiber-based closure is a standard 38–400 developed by Blue Ocean Closures for applications like nutritional supplements and can be applied to other products and packaging materials.”

“We see that the fiber-based closure is a new standard category, applicable to different bottle materials. Further applications are being developed in collaboration with a leading brand.”

Pioneering brand users

Paboco will apply the technical and design learnings from the combination of paper bottles and caps within the Pioneer Community, a group of companies who were first in supporting paper bottles where development continues in solving the packaging needs of various products.

One such company working with both Paboco and Blue Ocean Closures is The Absolut Group.

“The combination of a fiber-based bottle and cap is a recyclable as paper option, complimentary to the existing packaging mix, that brings some immediate benefits. Paper is light, but sturdy which allows us to reduce the material needed. It is a material that is also renewable and sustainably sourced,” Michael Michelsen, commercial director at Pacobo, tells us.

The paper bottle and cap is available to order for selected partners and was exhibited at this year’s CPHI in Milan, Italy (October 8–10) and will be showcased at Scanpack in Gothenburg, Sweden (October 22–25).

Demand for fiber-based packaging has been picking up, particularly in the beverage sector. Last month, Diageo released a “first of its kind” 90% paper-based bottle trialed for Johnnie Walker Black Label exclusively at the whiskey label’s 1820 Rooftop Bar on Princes Street in Edinburgh, Scotland.