The vast majority of bottled water is sold in PET bottles because of the considerable advantages which the material offers – in particular, greater safety, marketability, lighter weight, lower costs and a smaller environmental impact than glass. At the same time, the high transparency of PET and the ability to mould a wide variety of shapes offers the potential for high shelf appeal in a material which gives good shelf life.
PET also offers significant benefits for the manufacture of the large containers typically used in water coolers for commercial and domestic users.
PET is a strong and inert material that does not react with foods, is resistant to attack by micro-organisms and will not biologically degrade. It maintains the purity of the bottled water and has no impact upon the taste.
Safety
Many sporting and entertainment events now permit drinks to be served only in PET bottles or plastic cups because of health and safety concerns about other packaging formats. PET bottles are preferred by retailers at these venues because it avoids the process of having to pour drinks into plastic cups, making service faster and giving consumers something that is resealable and easier to carry.
PET bottles are virtually impossible to break and, even when crushed, they have no sharp edges. For bottlers, shippers and retailers (as well as for end users) the integrity of PET bottles means no losses from breakage.
PET can also have health and safety benefits. There is no risk, for example, of production failures leading to sharp edges on containers or sharp fragments contaminating products.
Unlike some other plastics, PET does not contain bisphenol-A (BPA) or phthalates (plasticisers).
Weight
A typical PET water bottle weighs much less than the equivalent glass bottle. This means that transport costs for water packed in PET can be substantially lower than for water in glass bottles – and so can the environmental impact of the transport.
We have been involved in several projects with leading brand owners aimed at ‘lightweighting’ bottles to maximise the weight benefits of the PET packaging format – and also providing economic and environmental benefits through reduced materials use.
Environmental impact
The use of bottles for water has at times been controversial. When compared with tap water, bottled water has higher environmental impacts. Consumers, however, are drinking more and more bottled water for reasons of taste, convenience and lifestyle and because of the perceived purity of the bottled product.
Petainer is leading the way in reducing the environmental impact of PET packaging for water (and other products).
As well as developing new designs and technologies that permit the weight of the bottles to be reduced – therefore cutting materials consumed as well as reducing transport impacts – we are increasingly using recycled PET for bottle manufacture. We can now produce bottles made from 100 per cent recycled material and all PET bottles are fully recyclable.
Studies have shown that producing PET bottles results in less greenhouse gas emissions and uses less energy than producing glass bottles.
The use of refillable PET bottles has all the environmental advantages implicit in the material combined with benefits arising from the bottle being reused up to 25 times in its lifetime, prior to being recycled in a ‘closed loop’ where the material is used to create new containers. Where systems and facilities for this type of reuse and recycling exist, this is a highly sustainable packaging technology.
Petainer is the market leader in refillable technologies in Western Europe and Scandinavia and we are working closely with many major brands to further improve the environmental performance of refillable containers.
Shelf life
Most bottled water is ‘still’ rather than carbonated and its shelf life in a PET bottle is almost unlimited.
The shelf life of carbonated water depends upon the rate at which it loses carbonation. Recent developments in PET have greatly increased the shelf life that it can offer to bottled carbonated water because of significant improvements in barrier materials and technologies which retain CO2.
Shelf appeal
There is little real difference between many bottled waters – their commercial success in the highly competitive bottled water market is almost entirely dependent upon branding. The bottle itself can be a key component of the brand identity.
The design flexibility of PET enables distinctive, eye-catching shapes to be created to help establish brand identity and product differentiation. Containers can also be produced in an almost infinite variety of colours – or in naturally clear material which displays the purity of product inside. The scope is limited only by the imagination of the designer.
This permits bottles to be created which boost sales through their ‘shelf appeal’, grabbing the attention of shoppers.
Petainer has considerable expertise not just in the technology of PET bottle manufacture but also in understanding consumers. We undertake international market research to investigate the relationship between brands, products, packaging and purchasing. This expertise is available to our customers through our extensive consultancy services.
We undertake fully-informed ‘packaging audits’ for brand owners, identifying opportunities to introduce new packaging concepts. We have helped major brands introduce PET packaging in order to obtain functional, cost and sales benefits. Combining our expertise in ‘design for manufacture’ and ‘design for market’ produces sustainable, cost-effective packaging with real shelf appeal.
We have a passion for innovation and for taking new ideas from concept through to production.
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