46 PRODUCTS PETplanet Insider Vol. 22 No. 11/21 www.petpla.net Egypt’s first water bottles made of 100% rPET Nestlé Pure Life has launched Egypt’s f i rst water bot t les made of 100% rPET i n a 1 . 5 l f o rma t . The products which were first introduced and app r oved by the European Union as safe to use, are being produced by Nestlé Waters Egypt and go through a rigorous 10-step quality process. Bottles undergo more than one million quality tests per year. Nestlé’s global commitment includes investing a total of US$2 billion to develop sustainable packaging solutions for food grade recycled plastic; in addition to its commitment to increase the usage of rPET in packaging materials by 50% worldwide by 2025. Expanding the impact and contributing to increase recycling behaviour and raise public awareness, the new water bottles will include a QR code on the label which when scanned will direct the consumer to the Nestlé Pure Life website for further information about the product, as well as details of livelihood improvement and sustainability initiatives. Furthermore, vending machines will be placed at high traffic venues where consumers may dispose of their used plastic bottles, which will then be transferred for recycling. As part of its global commitments to tackle environmental and social issues, Nestlé Egypt is committed to recover and recycle as much plastic as it produces which will amount to 17,000 t of PET by the end of 2021 through the “Dorna” initiative which supports and encourages waste recycling operations and accelerates the pace of plastic collection. www.nestle-mena.com Prototype bottle made from 100% plant-based sources The Coca-Cola Company revealed a prototype bottle made from 100% plant-based plastic (bPET), excluding cap and label, produced using technologies that are ready to be commercially scaled across the industry. This builds on a technological breakthrough for the first planned commercialisation of technologies to convert second-generation biomass to plant-based monoethylene glycol (bMEG), one of two molecules necessary to create bPET. With the new bPET prototype uses materials from renewable sources, all petroleum-based content is being removing from the bottle. It is claimed to represent a significant technological step-forward in the reduction of virgin oil-based PET across commercially produced bottles. A l imited run of approximately 900 of the prototype bottles have been produced. The bottle is claimed to be recyclable bottle-to-bottle within existing recycling infrastructures, alongside PET from oil-based sources. Supporting the shared ambition to be net zero carbon by 2050, CocaCola recently announced a goal to use 3 million tons less virgin plastic from oil-based sources by 2025. Depending on business growth, this would result in approximately 20% less virgin plastic derived from fossil fuels worldwide than today. The strategy to achieve this goal includes investing in new recycling technologies; packaging improvements such as light weighting; different business models such as refillable, dispensed and fountain systems; as well as the development of new, renewable materials. Coca-Cola’s prototype is the product of partnerships with bio-based technology providers that are working to develop sustainable packaging solutions, including Changchun Meihe Science and Technology and Virent, Inc. It is made by combining sugars converted from plant-based materials to form plant-based monoethylene glycol (bMEG), as well as plant-based paraxylene (bPX), which has in turn been converted to plant-based terephthalic acid (bPTA). A c c o r d i n g t o Coca-Cola, these technologies signal n o t o n l y a s t e p change in the commercial viabi l i ty of bPX, led by Virent, but also a key evolution in renewable glycol production, using technology developed through a partnership between Coca-Cola and Changchun Meihe, with construction of a full-scale biorefinery by UPM now underway toward the commercialisation of the technology. The beverage packaging material is resulting from plant-based paraxylene produced at demonstration scale. The plant-based paraxylene was produced using sugar from corn, though Virent’s catalytic process lends itself to flexibility in feedstock. Finnish forest-based bioeconomy leader UPM announced in 2020 the construction of a full-scale biorefinery to convert wood biomass from forest residues and thinnings to plant-based MEG, alongside other 100% woodbased biomaterials. UPM uses sustainably sourced, certified hardwood from regional forests. The facility will be a world first for next-generation bMEG production that will be powered by Coca-Cola and Meihe co-owned technology, which was validated at demonstration scale in 2017. In addition to a simpler process, UPM will be unlocking new feedstock flexibility. While the plant-based MEG in today’s bottle was produced using sugar from corn, commercial quantities from sustainable wood biomass will be available soon. Scal ing renewable mater ials requires participation from the entire value chain, states Coca-Cola. The company worked with the team at Alpek Polyester to bring the technology online to convert renewable chemicals into 100% plant-based PET. Bottles were manufactured and filled within The Coca-Cola System. www.coca-colacompany.com
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