Robinsons Ready to Drink, Lipton Ice Tea and Drench ranges will now use 100% recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) for their 500ml bottles.
According to Britvic, the switch to fully recycled materials would save 1,354 tonnes of virgin plastic every year, in addition to the 1,900 tonnes saved by its Ballygowan Mineral Water and Fruit Shoot Hydro brands switching to rPET bottles.
New rPET bottles
The bottles are the first to be produced by a new rPET manufacturing facility in North Yorkshire built by Esterform Packaging, which was supported by a £5m investment from Britvic in 2019.
Robinsons director of sustainability Sarah Webster said: “We are extremely proud and excited to see the first use of Esterpet in our iconic brands as they make the move to 100% rPET.
“It’s a fantastic example of the progress made in the facility with Britvic’s investment support and the first in a series of changes using Esterpet packaging as we continue our journey to fulfil our rPET commitment.”
Esterform is reportedly the UK's largest independent converter of PET and has supplied Britvic for more than 15 years.
£20m project
Mark Tyne, Esterform’s managing director, added: “Our £20m project to produce 42,000 tonnes of recycled food grade PET could not have got off the ground without Britvic’s support and we look forward to working together to rollout recycled PET usage across Britvic’s portfolio.”
Britvic planned to move all bottles made in Great Britain to 100% rPET by the end of 2022, as part of its ‘Healthier People, Healthier Planet’ sustainability strategy.
Meanwhile, Greencore announced it was to begin trials for an all-fibre, plastic-free recyclable sandwich packaging in Co-op and Sainsbury’s stores across the country.
Subject to successful trials – set to begin in September 2021 – and meeting all parties’ performance criteria, roll-out of the new packaging will begin later in the year. Greencore expects to make these new packaging techniques available to the wider UK market in time.
