Lucozade Ribena bottle given a sustainable facelift
03 Apr 2019 --- Soft drink manufacturer Lucozade Ribena Suntory (LRS) is redesigning its Ribena blackcurrant-flavored fruit drink 500 ml bottles, with sustainability in mind. After conducting an in-depth agency pitch process that began in the summer of 2018, the company has selected industrial design agency Seymourpowell to oversee the redesign. The move coincides with the European Parliament’s approval of a sweeping landmark ban on single-use plastics, coined the Single Use Plastics Directive (SUDP).
“We believe that great design and innovation can change things for the better and play a key role in helping LRS meet its sustainability goals,” Adrian Caroen, Seymourpowell Executive Creative Director said in a statement.
The company has already made several large investments to propagate sustainability in its manufacturing processes. In 2010, the company invested £70 million (US$92.1 million) to bring bottle production into its Gloucestershire factory, a move designed to reduce its carbon footprint. More recently, Suntory Beverage & Food invested a further £13 million (US$17.1 million) to install a new filler at the factory for reducing the water and energy used to fill a bottle by 40 percent.
LRS has pledged that by the year 2025, 100 percent of its plastic packaging will be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. Some key elements of the proposed redesign are the reduced size of the full printed bottle sleeves and the increased transparency of the plastic component. The move is a bid to automate sorting machines in UK recycling centers and to better identify the packaging so that each bottle will have the optimum chance of being recycled.
Certain Ribena variants like the Lucozade Sport Fitwater and Ribena Frusion have been designed with bottle-to-bottle recycling in mind. The latest product launches from the brand have had sufficiently transparent labels. Notably, Ribena Frusion is manufactured using 100 percent recycled plastic (rPET) 420 ml bottles.
In 2018, Lucozade Ribena Suntory trialed an innovative style of plastic-free packaging to participants at sporting events by distributing sports drinks and gels encased in Ooho pods – edible transparent sacs made from a seaweed-based material.
The company calls on governmental involvement to encourage a mentality shift away from single-use plastics. Crucially, it urges action to improve the UK’s existing recycling infrastructure so that the plastic product can be efficiently recycled. Additionally, LRS supports the principle of a well-designed UK-wide Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) that encourages and increases recycling rates.
