Ribena’s radical label redesign lifts UK bottle-to-bottle recycling
16 Nov 2020 --- Ribena is minimizing its iconic labels, ensuring bottles can be easily identified, sorted and recycled using standard industry technology. The Suntory Beverage and Food GB and Ireland-owned (SBF GB&I) blackcurrant drink is incorporating 100 percent recycled PET (rPET) into its packaging, making it the largest UK soft drinks brand facilitating bottle-to-bottle recycling.
Ribena is partnering with sustainable waste management business Biffa on the recyclability project. All 500 ml bottles manufactured in the UK and Ireland will feature the new packaging design from January 2021, allowing consumers to leave the label and cap on the bottle for recycling.
Although Ribena’s bottles have always been recyclable, the previous sleeve’s dark color and length prevents some recycling plants’ sensors identifying the clear, recyclable bottle underneath.
Extensive product testing and investment in switching the label design ensures the drink is not affected by the extra exposure to light while on shelf.
“Ensuring the light exposure wouldn’t affect the drink was one of the biggest challenges we overcome since without the sleeve Ribena was liable to lose its color,” Jo Padwick, SBF GB&I’s Business Transformation Manager, tells PackagingInsights.
“After working on this project for two years, we’ve ensured our drinks retain the same great taste and color they always have while maintaining the same shelf life.”
“To do this, we’ve made one small change to the color we use in our Blackcurrant No Added Sugar and Very Berry variants, but this hasn’t changed the taste in any way.”
Ribena redesigned its iconic labels, enabling easy bottle sorting and recycling.
Lighter labeling
The £1.6 million (US$2.1 million) bottle redesign is welcomed by the Recycling Association, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and WRAP. The radically redesigned label is estimated to reduce Ribena’s bottle sleeve plastic use by 202 tons annually.
The new Ribena bottle features a “recycle me” message embossed on the bottle and printed as part of the label. SBF GB&I is also investing “a six-figure sum” in a 2021 advertising drive promoting recycling, reportedly the largest campaign for Ribena next year.
“We have been highly critical of manufacturers who have not taken responsibility for the full life cycle and recyclability of their products. SBF GB&I are doing the right thing and other manufacturers should follow their lead,” comments Dr. Simon Ellin, the Recycling Association’s CEO.
SBF GB&I sees the redesign as a key step in its ambition to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, as recycled plastic has a lower carbon footprint than other packaging options such as virgin plastic.
The sleeve redesign will also be applied across SBF GB&I’s Lucozade Sport and Lucozade Energy drinks in the next 18 months, saving 1,100 tons of plastic each year.
Ribena has sourced rPET from Morssinkhof in the Netherlands since 2007.
Reliable rPET supply
Ribena bottles have been made from 100 percent rPET since 2007. An important factor in the brand’s industry-pioneering rPET use is successful long-term relationships with resin suppliers.
“We have worked with Morssinkhof in the Netherlands since we first moved to 100 percent rPET for Ribena. They source our rPET from the deposit return schemes (DRS) in the Netherlands and Germany to ensure it is food grade quality,” Padwick tells PackagingInsights.
“[We] hope this latest effort to optimize our bottles for bottle-to-bottle recycling will inspire change in the industry. Ultimately, this will help to solve the ongoing issues around access to cost-effective and reliable rPET by increasing the supply.”
“Introducing the same infrastructure in the UK would help solve a lot of issues around supply of quality rPET, which is one of the reasons why we support the introduction of DRS in the UK.”
The UK governemnt will introduce a DRS for single-use drinks containers.
Support for DRS
Environment Minister Rebecca Pow indicates the UK government will introduce a DRS for single-use drinks containers and ensure companies take more responsibility for their packaging through new powers in the Environmental Bill.
“Bottle to bottle recycling constitutes around 18 percent of bottles recycled in Europe, with many bottles downcycled into items like park benches and traffic cones,” highlights Padwick.
“We’re really proud our new bottle has recycling built into the design and achieves true circularity.”
“It is this kind of innovation we want to see to create a more circular economy for our waste and resources, with more materials being recycled and reused and less being consigned to landfill or incineration,” agrees Pow.
The Ribena redesign caps off a big year for SBF GB&I. The British beverage giant invested in a paper straw trial for Ribena cartons, harvested the first crop of climate-change resistant blackcurrants and announced a breakthrough in enzymatic plastic recycling through parent company Suntory Beverage & Food Europe.
By Joshua Poole
