Coca-Cola partners with Blue Ocean Closures for fiber-based, recyclable screw caps

28 Sep 2023 --- Coca-Cola and Blue Ocean Closures are jointly testing the applicability of fiber-based closures. The Swedish environmental sustainability start-up is marketing a fiber-based packaging screw cap that is bio-based and recyclable in paper waste streams. 

Together, the companies are testing several parameters of the material, functionality and production system of fiber-based closures, Ulrika Ganterud Evermark, community manager at Blue Ocean Closures, tells Packaging Insights. 

“We are hoping to achieve a fiber-based closure that can effectively replace current plastic closures on a large scale,” says Evermark. 

“For us to succeed with this move away from fossil-based plastics, it is important to have global brands on board, with the ambition and ability to make a difference,” adds Lars Sandberg, Blue Ocean Closures’ CEO. 

He continues: “We are thrilled to announce our explorative partnership with Coca-Cola’s EMEA R&D Center today, focusing on innovation to bring new and more sustainable products to use.”

Speeding up development 
In line with its ambitions to advance environmentally sustainable packaging while reducing non-renewable material, Coca-Cola is joining Blue Ocean Closures’ community of partners.

“The collaboration with Coca-Cola will further strengthen and speed up our development process,” asserts Evermark.

At the Interpack trade show in Düsseldorf, Germany, earlier this year, Blue Ocean Closures, Stora Enso and Aisa demonstrated the “first ever” paperboard tube with a fiber-based closure consisting of more than 85% fibers. 

Meanwhile, the start-up partnered with Swed-jam and the Research Institutes of Sweden in a research project to replace metal lids with fiber-based alternatives. The project was funded by Vinnova’s BioInnovation program to research and develop packaging substitutes using bio-based materials.

By Natalie Schwertheim