Bottles Made of “Plant Plastic” Expected in Supermarkets by 2023

Beer and non-alcoholic drinks could soon start being consumed in a much healthier way – maybe not for us, but certainly for the environment.

In partnership with some of the largest producers of beverages in the world, including Carlsberg and Coca-Cola, the Dutch company Avantium, which produces biochemical products, is developing bottles made of plants, which should replace the standard plastic ones in the future.

Avantium believes that the necessary investments for the construction of a suitable refinery facility, where packaging based on plant sugars, instead of fossil fuels, will be produced, will be secured by the end of the year.

The project has already been supported by Carlsberg, which expects its beer to be sold in a cardboard packaging covered by a layer of bioplastic. Coca-Cola and Danone are also trying to reduce their pollution with plastic, emission of harmful gases and climate change, through their support to the innovators from the Netherlands. The CEO of Avantium, Tom van Aken, hopes that other interested companies will join their initiative to make the production and the consumption “greener” this summer.

Each year, on the global level, through oil products, around 300 million tons of new plastic is produced, which deepens the current climate crisis. Most is not recycled, but turned into microplastic, penetrating the environment and having a very adverse effect on it, especially when it comes to oceans. Those small plastic particles are indeed a big problem, as they take hundreds of years to degrade.

Van Aken explained that the “attractiveness” of the plastic produced by his company was in its sustainability.

– It doesn't use fossil fuels and can be recycled and it also degrades much faster in the nature than normal plastic – he pointed out and added that recycling was still the best solution.

The tests have shown that Avantium's plastic disintegrates fully within a year in a composter and within several years in natural conditions.

The packaging can hold carbonated drinks as well.

Bottles made of plant sugars from corn, grains or sugar beet, might become available at supermarkets as soon as in 2023. Avantium will be producing around 5,000 tons of plastic in the initial phase, but it announces that the capacities will grow along with the demand for renewable plastic. It will use biowaste from sustainable sources.

Avantium

Carlsberg

Coca Cola

Tom van Aken

bottles made of plant sugars

bio plastic

packaging

beer bottles

juice bottles