Carlsberg unveils ‘world first’ sustainable beer bottle

Carlsberg has released their latest prototype, a new Green Fibre Bottle, which is made from sustainably-sourced wood fibres and is fully recyclable.

The global brewer, headquartered in Denmark, has been trialling sustainable packaging for a number of years, as part of its sustainability programme; Together Towards ZERO. It has committed to a 30% reduction in its full value chain carbon footprint and ZERO carbon emissions at its breweries by 2030.

The new prototype is the first paper bottle to contain beer. One prototype uses a thin recycled PET polymer film barrier, and the other uses a 100% bio-based PEF polymer film barrier. These barriers allow the paper bottles to contain beer. They ultimately seek a solution to achieve their ambition of 100% bio-based bottle without polymers.

“We continue to innovate across all our packaging formats, and we are pleased with the progress we’ve made on the Green Fibre Bottle so far. While we are not completely there yet, the two prototypes are an important step towards realising our ultimate ambition of bringing this breakthrough to market. Innovation takes time and we will continue to collaborate with leading experts in order to overcome remaining technical challenges, just as we did with our plastic-reducing Snap Pack.” Myriam Shingleton, Vice President Group Development at Carlsberg Group.

Carlsberg has been developing their sustainable paper bottle since 2015 alongside innovation experts’ ecoXpac, packing company BillerudKorsnäs, and post-doctoral researchers from the Danish Technical University, supported by Innovation Fund Denmark. Their combined efforts have led to the emergence of a new Paper Bottle Company, Paboco, a joint venture between BillerudKorsnäs and bottle manufacturing specialist Alpla.

The Coca-Cola Company, The Absolut Company and L’Oréal now join Carlsberg in the paper bottle community. The community, launched by Paboco, unites leading global companies and experts with the vision of advancing sustainable packaging, offering high-quality products while reducing their environmental impact.

“The work with our partners since 2015 on the Green Fibre Bottle illustrates that this kind of innovation can happen when we work together. We’re delighted that other like-minded companies have now joined us as part of Paboco’s paper bottle community. Partnerships such as these, ones that are united by a desire to create sustainable innovations, are the best way to bring about real change.” Myriam Singleton.

To learn more about sustainability advancements in the packaging industry click here. 

Photograph: Carlsberg