Dutch supermarket unveils rPET bottle consisting of 25 percent bio-based content

18 Jun 2019 --- Dutch supermarket Jumbo is relaunching its 1-liter bottle of fresh orange juice in a 75 percent rPET and 25 percent bio-based plastic bottle. The bottle cap is made of 100 percent transparent and recyclable HDPE. The new, more sustainable bottle will be extended to all other types and sizes of fresh juices, including the La Place own brand. In total, these measures are expected to save around 100,000 kilos of new plastic per year.

The rPET material used to make the new bottles can be continuously recycled to create new high-grade food and beverage packaging. The bio-based content – which is made mostly from sugarcane waste – is also recyclable.

“We understand the concern around increasing levels of plastic waste,” says Olaf de Boer, Commercial Director of Jumbo. “At Jumbo, we want to do something about this. That is why we are gradually using more sustainable packaging and less of it.”

“With these new bottles, we maintain the user-friendliness of the previous design as well as the quality and taste of the juice, while ensuring that there is no virgin plastic being used,” he adds.

These new measures are part of a series of actions that Jumbo is taking to increase the sustainability of its packaging and, in particular, to reduce its plastic footprint. The supermarket has set the following 2025 sustainability targets:

• To use 20 percent less packaging material compared to 2017.
• To ensure all packaging is reusable or 100 percent recyclable, where possible.
• To ensure all plastic packaging material consists of 50 percent recycled plastic.
• To ensure single-use plastic consists of a minimum of 35 percent recycled plastic.
• To reduce the use of fossil plastics by using sustainably produced bio-based plastics, where possible.
• To only use cardboard and paper that is 100 percent FSC certified.

An example of how Jumbo is innovating to meet these targets is the supermarket’s “natural label,” which it launched in June 2018. It is a state-of-the-art laser technology that can print words such as “organic” directly on fruit and vegetables, thereby eradicating the need for a material label.

In a move similar to Jumbo’s launch of its new 1-liter rPET bottle, Coca-Cola announced this week that its GLACÉAU smartwater bottles will be made from 100 percent recycled plastic (rPET) by the end of the year in a move that is expected to remove 3,100 tons of virgin plastic from circulation. Coca-Cola in Great Britain also confirmed that it is on track to double the amount of rPET used in all other plastic bottles across its 20 brands to at least 50 percent in early 2020.