This summer, the Coca-Cola Company’s first paper bottle prototype is moving from the laboratory to the marketplace via a small online trial in Hungary. The series of 2,000 bottles of AdeZ beverage will be offered in a pioneering package through e-grocery retailer Kifli.hu., and the Carlsberg beer company is also building prototypes for a bottle of paper beer.
Looking into the new era of the environment, the world has to take major steps to protect nature accordingly, and Coca-Cola has initiated towards reducing plastic bottle by paper bottle. Absolut, the vodka-maker, is responsible for the testing in the UK and Sweden of 2,000 paper bottles of its premixed, carbonated raspberry drink.
But the goal is to create a plastic-free, 100 percent recyclable bottle, capable of preventing gas from escaping from carbonated beverages. The prototype is made from an extra-strong paper shell by a Danish company that still contains a thin plastic liner. Also, the barrier must guarantee that no fibers flake off into the liquid. This would pose a risk of changing the drink’s taste or potentially falling foul.
In partnership with Carlsberg, L’Oréal and The Absolut Group, the Paper Bottle Company (Paboco), a Danish start-up sponsored by ALPLA and BillerudKorsnäs, is going into the market testing process to assess the efficiency of the package and the shopper’s reaction to the format.
Stijn Franssen, Coca-Cola Europe’s R&D packaging innovation chief, underlines that the revolutionary technology is still in progress. Franssen’s team performed rigorous laboratory experiments to determine how the paper bottle works, holds up and protects its contents.
