Available at retail outlets with immediate effect, both firms are introducing this reusable PET bottle made entirely of post-consumer recycled material after a development period of about a year
The reusable rPET bottle can be used with TÖNISSTEINER’s current 12-bottle crates. (Credit: ALPLA)
Packaging and recycling company ALPLA and the mineral water company Privatbrunnen TÖNISSTEINER Sprudel have jointly developed a reusable PET bottle made completely from recycled material.
The recyclable one-litre mineral water bottle is said to offer logistical benefits due to its lightweight and lower carbon footprint.
Available at retail outlets with immediate effect, ALPLA and TNISSTEINER are introducing a reusable PET bottle made entirely of post-consumer recycled material (apart from the closure and label) after a development period of about a year.
The bottle was created by the packaging and recycling company and Germany’s oldest Roman spring to reduce resource usage and carbon emissions during production.
ALPLArecycling manufactures and supplies the recycled PET (rPET) needed for the creative packaging solution. The bottle can be fully recycled at the end of its lifespan.
ALPLA Germany managing director Georg Pescher said: “The packaging of the future is sustainable, light and safe. We at ALPLA already deliver in this regard with a circular economy based on the bottle-to-bottle principle, weight optimisation and systematic design for recycling.
“Working with TÖNISSTEINER, we have brought all of these approaches together to create a new reusable solution made entirely of rPET.”
The existing 12-bottle TNISSTEINER crates can use the reusable rPET bottle because of its perfect-fit design. It can carry up to 160 crates containing 1,920 more bottles per lorry load, ALPLA said.
Additionally, the cycle is sped up and reduces the amount of bottle sorting time by wholesalers and retailers by the optimised return of empty TNISSTEINER rPET and glass containers on a pallet of standardised crates.
The reusable bottle can now be converted into rPET at the packaging firm’s recycling facilities and recycled into new bottles.
Both firms are planning to set up an optimum bottle-to-bottle loop and secure their own supply of reusable rPET bottles.
TÖNISSTEINER managing director Hermann-Josef Hoppe said: “TÖNISSTEINER stands for the sustainable use of resources. In ALPLA, we have found an innovative partner for the introduction of our first own reusable rPET bottle.
“The climate-friendly bottle has been perfectly tailored to our sorting, bottling and transport processes.”