The fiber beer bottle is coming to consumers' hands! The Danish brewery group Carlsberg, which has launched this project in 2015 is moving into the test phase with 8,000 bottles of fiber to be distributed in eight European countries: France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. These very special bottles will be offered at festivals and events and through product sampling.
These tests will not only gather feedback from people with the product, but also test the production, performance and large-scale recycling of this bottle.
This fiber bottle will be the first fully biodegradable industrial bottle. It features a plant-based PEF polymer liner developed by Avantium, a specialist in renewable chemistry. "PEF is made entirely from natural raw materials, is compatible with plastic recycling systems and can degrade in nature if it ends up outside of national recycling systems." says the brewer.
The outer shell of the bottle, produced by Paboco, a company created by Carlsberg, the Swedish paper group BillerudKorsnäs and with the Austrian bottle manufacturer Alpha, is made of wood fibers, like paper, of sustainable origin.
Unlike its aluminum or glass counterparts, this shell has heat insulating properties, which should be appreciated in the beer market.
"Identifying and producing PEF, as a competent functional barrier for beer, has been one of our biggest challenges euros so getting good test results, collaborating with suppliers and seeing the bottles fill up on the line is a great successeuros!" says Stephane Munch, Vice President Group Development at Carlsberg.
The bottle is 100% biobased except for the cap, but Paboco, Carlsberg and other partners, plan to offer a generic fiber-based cap by 2023.
The fiber bottle should have the same carbon footprint as the refillable glass bottle, which is the most efficient primary packaging when collected and reused in efficient systems.
Carlsberg also says that when this fiber bottle is widely marketed, it will complement, not replace, existing packaging.
