Metal makeover: Danone’s evian boosts circularity with sparkling water in aluminum cans

14 Jan 2022 --- Danone’s evian has launched its latest sparkling water in aluminum cans as well as its more familiar PET bottles. The mineral water brand has long used 100% recyclable bottles. However, with aluminum cans’ superior recycling rate, the new format is expected to significantly improve the brand’s circularity.

A record 36.5 billion aluminum beverage cans were recycled in the EU, Switzerland, Norway and Iceland in 2019, according to European Aluminium and Metal Packaging Europe.

The aluminum cans can be recycled indefinitely. Prior to the launch of evian’s aluminum canned water, it adopted a “circular approach” to plastic usage, pledging to make all its plastic bottles from 100% recycled plastic by 2025. 

“This latest innovation demonstrates our longstanding pioneering spirit that runs through everything we do,” says Shweta Harit, vice president of marketing at evian.

Sparkling achievement in circularity
The release of evian sparkling water, packaged in 33 cl aluminum cans, follows the launch of its “Drink True” global campaign. The cans are sold alongside 1 L 100% recycled PET (rPET) bottles.

The move has been commended by anti-plastic advocacy organization, A Plastic Planet. “Aluminum is fully circular. One can really does become another can without material deterioration,” Siân Sutherland, co-founder A Plastic Planet tells PackagingInsights. 

“It [aluminum] has many of the benefits of plastic but also has a well established value-driven recycling stream so just on circularity alone, aluminum is definitely a better alternative than plastic.”

However, Darrel Collier, executive director of The National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR), argues that switching to aluminum cans is not a trend, but brand owners looking to generate awareness and differentiation for new products. 

“They recognize that PET benefits far exceed aluminum cans, which is why you don’t see it being eliminated from their existing offerings,” he tells PackagingInsights.

Collier explains that PET uses less energy, produces less greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions than common beverage packaging alternatives, is lightweight and can be made with 100% recyclable material.

Plastic hangover
In 2020, evian launched its first range of bottles made from 100% recycled plastic. The packaging was made available in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany and the UK. In January 2021, the company released a 100% recycled plastic bottle in the US. 

About 58% of the plastic used by the company in the UK is recycled. The aluminum cans can be recycled indefinitely. 

“In an ideal world, single-use anything would not exist, in markets where quality water from a tap is freely available. But right now we are in a transition stage. We are addicted to convenience and ‘on-the-go’ for food and beverages,” continues Sutherland.

She describes the plastic bottle as an oxymoron – lightweight, transparent but indestructible and “laced with toxic chemicals.” 

“Despite it [PET] being one of the most recyclable plastics, it is still in the top three global pollutants. This is because the enormous investment in recycling plastic has never happened and any attempts to make fossil-fuel plastic circular have failed.”

Collier responds that replacing PET packaging with alternatives means more material by weight – to do less. Creating more waste to tackle the waste problem is like “shouting for silence,” he says.

“United Nations research on beverage packaging shows that PET and aluminum have the lowest environmental impact in 4 of 8 categories each, implying there is no single sustainable option.”

The path to aluminum cans
This is the first time the company has bottled sparkling water or used aluminum cans since its inception in 1826. The water follows a 15-year natural filtration journey through the glacial rocks of the French Alps.

The company developed a roadmap to move from a linear model to a circular one in which the recycled plastic would not be produced using virgin plastics. The move was facilitated by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Evian is also certified carbon-neutral by the Carbon Trust. 

It launched its first label-free, 100% recyclable and rPET bottles in Singapore, earlier this year.

This was followed by the launch of a rPET prototype bottle in collaboration with clean technology company Loop Industries, which will roll out in South Korea this year.

Pinpointing paper-based bottles(Credit: The National Association for PET Container Resources).
A Plastic Planet, however, is more in favor of a plastic-free, pulp-based bottle, claiming this would be the ideal circular option.

“The world still quests the waterproof paper bottle. So far all I have seen is marketing headline grabs that still depend on polymer liners,” notes Sutherland. 

“Some of these [pulp-based bottles] are replacing glass for premium brands – which is not where the volume is and therefore should not be the focus. I know that we are close to seeing a truly plastic-free pulp bottle that can hold liquids,” she says.

In contrast to prevailing views, a 2021 study by Trayak found that a 500 ml PET water bottle system consumed less fossil fuels and contributed to less GHG emissions than a canned water package of the same size. 

“PET water bottle impacts were also lower for water and mineral resource consumption, and significantly lower in terms of freshwater toxicity and eutrophication as well as human impact,” explains Collier.

“Different packaging materials would perform better depending upon the particular application, but it is apparent that it is incorrect to say that glass or aluminum are more sustainable than PET on the whole.”

“PET in particular, differentiated from plastics in general, has an impressive [environmental] sustainability profile for beverage packaging,” he concludes.

By Inga de Jong