PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2012

NEWS 8 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 06/12 www.petpla.net US bottled water consumption rises The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA), in conjunction with Beverage Marketing Corporation (BMC) has released bottled water statistics for 2011. The data com- plied by BMC a research, consulting, and financial services firm dedicated to the global beverage industry, shows that the overall consumption of bottled water has increased by 4.1%, building on 2010’s growth. In 2011, total U.S. bot- tled water consumption increased to 9.1 billion gallons, up from 8.75 billion gallons in 2010. All other major beverage categories such as carbonated soft drinks, milk, and fruit beverages experienced continuing declines in consumption. Per-capita consumption is up 3.2% in 2011; every person in America drank an average of 29.2 gallons (US – 110.5l) of bottled water last year. The bottled water industry is using a variety of measures to reduce environmental footprint. Between 2000 and 2008, bottled water companies reduced the weight of PET resin plastic single-serve bottles by 32% . www.beveragemarketing.com Sacmi and Sipa collaborate in preform and closure project The two companies Sipa and Sacmi have joined forces to develop a new system that combines PET preforms and closures. The development team for this collaboration is headed by Enrico Gribaudo (Sipa) and Giuseppe Lesce (Sacmi) respectively. It is said that the new solution, under the acronym “S.U.P.E.R.” ( Sustainable, Unique, Productive, Easy, and Reliable), will be a special combination of preform neck finish and lightweighted caps that is intended to eliminate problems associated with the operation of a cap on the neck of a PET bottle. The two companies state that this new system, protected by patents, will include closures that will be lighter than the average of alternatives avail- able on the market today. And it is said that the system aims to be highly productive, especially when switching between containers of various types, including water, soft drinks, and aseptically filled drinks, and that very little modification of the lines is required for either preforms or closures (the latter produced with Sacmi’s compression process). According to the two companies, there will be a new “easy-to-open” design of the bottle, i.e. the leak angle is greater than the bridge-break angle, a feature not available on the market today, according to the develop- ment team. Specific information or details about this new system have not been disclosed.