Packaging for Lea & Perrins

http://www.greenbottle.com/

Packaging waste is a huge and growing problem for modern society, with efficient 'green' disposal of plastic waste a particular issue.

Every day the UK throws away an estimated 15 million plastic bottles. While recycling rates are increasing they are still a long way away from 100%, and if plastic is not recycled it will soon find its way to landfill. Once there, because plastic does not biodegrade, it will persist for hundreds of years. Disposal of laminated cartons, the other predominant form of packaging for liquid consumer products, faces similar problems.

GreenBottle is a new type of liquid packaging designed as an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic bottles and laminated cartons. The bottle is made from a paper outer shell with a thin plastic liner inside to hold the liquid. After use, the bottle is easily separable, so that the paper outer can be composted or recycled, and the inner liner recycled where facilities exist. The bottle performs the same in distribution, in the store, and in the home as a regular plastic bottle, but with the advantage of being much better for the environment as it uses much less plastic.

Greenbottle has a much lower carbon footprint than a regular plastic bottle, and has a third of the plastic of a comparable plastic bottle.

The product benefits of GreenBottle in a nutshell are:

• Excellent shelf standout and strong visual and tactile appeal
• GreenBottle is recyclable and the outer shell is biodegradable/compostable
• The outer shell will be largely made of recycled material
• Carbon footprint is significantly less than an equivalent plastic bottle
• Uses less than one third of the plastic of a comparable plastic bottle
• Easy for consumers to understand/use, and preferred over plastic bottles

Research and in-market testing has consistently shown that consumers 'get' GreenBottle, find it easy to use and, given the choice, prefer GreenBottle over equivalent plastic bottles.

GreenBottle has consistently been preferred by consumers to conventional plastic bottles in research in the milk, detergent and juice categories. In a test market in Asda stores, sales of local milk increased significantly, selling at a rate of three bottles to one when sold in GreenBottle versus plastic.

In the milk category, research indicated a positive intention to try of over 90%

Our wine bottles weigh just 55g versus 400g for a glass 750ml bottle and therefore will yield a considerable fuel and carbon footprint saving in distribution, and are lighter for the customer to carry home.

Wine chilled in GreenBottles will stay cooler for longer on the table. Recycling is easier for the consumer and more effective; glass bottles are mostly ground for road aggregate (Recycle-direct.com). Glass production is very energy intensive, and haulage costs are likely to be considerably lower when using GreenBottle in place of glass.

Much of the UK wine market is bottled in the UK; of the 1.2 billion litres sold in the UK, 30% are bottled in the UK.

GreenBottles are designed so that after use they can easily be opened, the paper and plastic elements separated, and each disposed of appropriately:

	GreenBottle is ripped in two by pressing finger under the flap at the top, and pushing all the way down under the flap to open out the bottle.
	The plastic inner can then easily be separated all in one from the paper outer.
	The two separate parts of the bottle can then be disposed of; the paper outer onto a compost heap or into paper recycling, and the plastic inner into plastic recycling where facilities are available.