Coca-Cola has partnered with Danish startup Paboco (“Paper Bottle Company”) as one of many strategies to reduce the three million metric tons of plastic packaging it goes through per year. The company is already developing ways to use more recycled material, increase recycling rates, and test refilling stations that rely on reusable bottles. Taking their efforts a step further, the soda giant is going to launch their first drink in a paper bottle in Hungary this summer.
After years of development, Coca-Cola will see how well the Paboco bottles perform with a two thousand bottle roll out. The bottle is formed out of a single sheet of paper fiber so that it is durable enough to handle the bottling process. The first model will have a thin plastic liner to keep the paper dry, but soon the plastic liner will be made from plant-based material, greatly reducing the carbon footprint of manufacturing the bottles.
Stijn Franssen, R&D packaging innovation manager for Coca-Cola EMEA says, “our vision is to create a paper bottle that can be recycled like any other type of paper, and this prototype is the first step on the way to achieving this”.
Paboco hopes that their paper products could soon replace all other packaging materials so that eventually, everything you purchase will be wrapped in renewable, sustainable, and biodegradable material.
