Plastic bottles have become common sights at grocery and convenience stores. In fact, over the past couple of decades, the growth in plastic has been so dramatic you might think that eventually plastic will completely replace aluminum beverage cans. Not so fast. According to recent data, aluminum is making a comeback, and in fact it might be those plastic bottles that one day completely disappear from the shelves.
Why the dramatic shift? The industry is finally waking up to the many advantages of aluminum. When it comes to health, safety and sustainability, aluminum wins out over plastic almost every time. Today well be looking at how aluminum is changing the beverage industry and what manufacturers should expect in the years to come.
It might be hard to believe for younger readers, but before aluminum and plastic, there was a time when most store bought drinks came in glass bottles. Glass has been relegated to something of a novelty item, as both aluminum and plastic are more durable and less prone to breakage.
What we think of as the modern aluminum beverage can first appeared on store shelves in thanks to the Adolph Coors Company. Before this, beverages could only be purchased in tin cans, which required a special lining on the interior to protect the liquid from reacting with the metal, a problem that was alleviated by the move to aluminum.
Remarkably, at the same time Coors introduced the aluminum can, they also instituted a recycling program, paying 1 penny for every can that was returned. When Royal Crown Cola released its new 12-ounce aluminum container in , they packaged 1 million cases using aluminum within the first year. Aluminum was a game changer not only because of its durability, but it was lightweight compared to tin or steel, was completely non-toxic, and even had a better surface for adding graphics and logos.
Advances in packaging technology over the next several decades led to aluminum being widely used for holding single serve liquids, but it was impractical for larger amounts of liquid, and eventually developments in plastic led to a market shift. Plastic is cheaper, and the fact it is transparent was appealing to customers.
So, if plastic has proven so popular as to marginalize aluminum in recent years, why are companies looking to change now? While there are several reasons for this, the primary motivator can be summarized with a single word: sustainability.
Plastic recycling has been around for years. You might imagine that when you send your old plastic receptacles off to the recycler, that they somehow get processed into new bottles. Unfortunately, thats not the way it works. Most plastic bottles are so thin, they cant be turned into new bottles. Instead, they get transformed into fibers that can then be used in other products, such as carpets, clothing, and sleeping bags.
And because plastic isnt very valuable as a recycled material, especially compared to glass or aluminum, much of it just becomes waste. This has proven to be a huge problem, as plastic bottles have polluted our oceans and wreaked havoc on the environment. The production of plastic also relies on oil.
On the other hand, aluminum is easily recycled, and a strong ecosystem has been built up over multiple decades to collect and repurpose aluminum products. So, while the production of aluminum also involves an invasive mining and extraction process, its ability to be recycled indefinitely lends itself well to sustainability efforts. In fact, it has been estimated that approximately 75% of all aluminum ever produced in the United States is still in use today.
For these reasons, aluminum is making a comeback. Some of the biggest beverage companies on the planet have decided to make a switch. Coca-Cola recently announced that it will be introducing a new line of its Dasani brand water featuring aluminum cans in the northeastern U.S.
There director of packaging innovation was quoted as saying, Designing our packages to reduce the amount of raw materials used and incorporating recycled and renewable content in our bottles to help drive a circular economy for our packaging is an important part of our commitment to doing business the right way. (https://www.businesswire.com/news/home//en/DASANI%C2%AE-Takes-New-Steps-Reduce-Plastic-Waste)
Pepsi also has its own brand of bottled water, Aquafina, and they announced a similar move to aluminum for reasons of sustainability. The keyword in the Coke announcement was circular. What is driving the reassessment of aluminum as a material is the knowledge that once it has been extracted, the aluminum will have a much longer lifecycle in our economy.
One other benefit of aluminum that hasnt been mentioned is that it is biocompatible. That means theres no issue of toxicity. There is growing evidence that many kinds of plastics used to package food and beverages can lead to a host of health problems, with cancer chief among them. While the research is still not certain about how much plastic exposure is needed before it will affect humans, just the uncertainty is enough to make aluminum a more attractive option.
Some final advantages of aluminum that should be mentioned include the fact that because cans are stackable and more efficient to store (plus the fact aluminum is one of the lightest metals) the overall carbon footprint of shipping aluminum cans is reduced. Aluminum cans also require less energy to chill due to the thermal conductivity of aluminum.
One key aspect of the aluminum value chain is working with an experienced material supplier who can get you the right alloy and product. At Clinton Aluminum, our dedicated team of technical professionals is committed to working with our clients to ensure they are making sustainable purchasing decisions. Were happy to answer your questions and give you detailed information regarding which aluminum alloy is right for you.
Contact a member of our friendly and knowledgeable sales team today.
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Our 100% PCR aluminum bottle, made for the New U.K. brand Re:Water, earned the Metal Pack of the Year recognition at the UK Packaging Awards.
In February , the Packaging World magazine wrote about our cutting-edge bottle, stating:
Earning Metal Pack of the Year recognition in the UK Packaging Awards and described by the judges as a total game changer in the bottled water market, as well as one of the most disruptive and innovative products available, metal packaging supplier Tecnocaps PURE 100% post-consumer recycled aluminum bottle is understandably finding great commercial success as well.
In May , U.K. brand owner Sauce Connections introduced Re:Water, a refillable bottled spring water product sourced from Herefordshire, U.K.s Berrington Water, packaged in Tecnocaps 100% PCR aluminum bottle, which the supplier says is a world first for spring water. Under development for three years by Sauce and Berrington, the brand was created to provide consumers with a new, more environmentally friendly way of consuming bottled water.
According to Re:Water Director Matt Crocker, the name of the brand encompasses its mission statement, which is Re:Use, Re:Fill, and Re:Cycle. A secondary reason [we chose the name] is it fits in with the subject line Re:, or regarding, he adds.
Regarding bottled water, we want to have an honest conversation with our users about the pros and cons of bottled water and how we can all be more environmentally aware and friendly.
Shares Crocker, the project involved meeting three targets: to make a product that was genuinely environmentally friendly, one consumers would like drinking from, and one that was commercially viable for the full supply chain. Re:Water chose the 100% PCR aluminum bottle because of its low carbon footprint and its ability to be refilled and reused. To top the bottle, it selected a 28-mm aluminum closure that can also be easily recycled across the U.K., with no separation required.
Re:Water was fortunate to find an aluminum bottle with 100% recycled content; until recently, this type of package was not being produced. Explains Elio Lamberti, Managing Director of Tecnocap Aerosol & Bottles Division, the challenge in the past to creating a bottle from 100% PCR aluminum was that there was not an adequate supply of the material. Post-consumer recycled aluminum is created by consumers after a product has reached the end of its use, diverted from the landfill, and utilized in the production of other products, he says. To realize this packaging solution, we needed a specific supply chain dedicated exclusively to PCR aluminum that was always available. Through a partnership we formed two years ago with some of our top-class European suppliers of aluminum [slugs], we were among the first in Europe to have the availability of this PCR aluminum for our entire range of products. There is also another difficulty in the process. Our aluminum supplier must have a furnace dedicated exclusively to recycled aluminum, which is processed in a different way than standard aluminum.
Among the benefits listed by Tecnocap of the PURE bottle are that it generates more than 50% fewer CO2 emissions than virgin aluminum bottles; it is sturdy, yet lightweight, weighing 60 g when empty, which the company says further reduces CO2emissions; it has a thin, BPA-free coating inside that acts as a barrier between the water and the aluminum, but does not affect recyclability; its aluminum cap allows for resealability and easy recycling; and once the consumer has finished the product, they can refill the bottle or dispose of it in standard U.K. recycling systems.
Lamberti confirms that Tecnocap has measured the environmental impacts of the bottle through a Life Cycle Assessment and has certified the results, obtaining a third-party EPD Environmental Product Declaration. He notes, The bottle is well aligned with the Circular Economy model in that, once produced, it can be used, reused, and recycled to infinity, without any loss of quality, minimizing also the possibility of it becoming waste in the environment.
The adoption of the bottle did not come without challenges for Re:Water though. Says Croker, While glass and PET bottles are molded, aluminum bottles are not. This means batches can be different each time, which causes a huge capping challenge. We needed to create and design new machinery from scratch in order to successfully run the product at high speed.
The aluminum bottle is also more expensive than PET, approximately 90 pence (or approximately US$1.22) across the supply chain. This cost is passed on [to the consumer], he explains. But if you consider the reusable nature of the pack, the consumer is getting both 500 milliliters of spring water as well as a refillable bottlea strong value proposition.
And, consumers are refilling the bottleup to five to 10 times, according to Crocker. That said, we also have messages from consumers who have used the bottle for months, he adds. Most users buy it on the go, refill it at work or the gym for the journey home, and then either continue to use it, or recycle it.
Re:Water is available in still and sparkling varieties in a 500-mL size, sold at retail and online. Sauce also manufactures the product for other brands in the U.K., such as Itsu, a British chain of East Asian-inspired fast-food shops and restaurants, and a grocery company, Benugo cafes and restaurants, and TGI Fridays restaurants. Notably, it also supplied custom bottles for the COP26 Glasgow Climate Change Conference last fall and for the G7 Summit in Cornwall in June .
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