International beverage giant Pepsi has introduced its lightest 500ml no-carbonated beverage bottle yet. The company has reduced the plastic in this bottle by 20 per cent, claiming it will eliminate around 9m kg of waste.
The lighter bottles will begin hitting store shelves this month, which will be available in 12-packs and 24-packs. In addition to the reduction of plastic resin, Pepsi says there will be a 10 per cent reduction in the label size and a 5 per cent reduction in the shrink wrap film used to wrap the multi-packs.
Robert Lewis, VP of worldwide beverage packaging and equipment development, PepsiCo says, "The challenge was to deliver significantly lighter packaging that would provide the same shelf life as the heavier bottle, withstand the manufacturing and distribution process yet not compromise aesthetics."
Lewis adds, "After a full year of hard work from multiple corners of the company, we hit the trifecta - a bottle that satisfied the needs of our system, our consumers and the environment."
The company concludes that a cross-functional team of experts from within and outside the company brought this project to life though consumer interaction. After fielding over 30 aesthetic designs in consumer testing, a multi-disciplinary team worked together to develop the lightweight package.
