In this section, you can access to the latest technical information related to the RECYPACK project topic.
Water market taps into lightweight plastic bottles
Consumers' thirst for plastic-bottled water flows directly into increased demand for those containers. Bottled water market drivers include population growth, increase in the prevalence of waterborne diseases and scarcity of tap water create a high demand for bottled water.
Some locations require water to be boiled for safety, but this inconvenient process is both time-consuming and energy inefficient, compelling users in those areas to turn to bottled water.
Also, bottled mineral water is purified and fortified with dissolved minerals, which provides added health benefits to wellness-aware consumers.
“The need for safe drinking water in developing countries like India and countries in the Middle East has made these regions favorable destinations for multinational bottled water manufacturers,” says Sharan Raj, a lead analyst at Technavio (London) for packaging research, referencing the company’s new report, Global Plastic-Based Water Packaging Market 2017-2021 . “The per-capita consumption of bottled water is expected to increase during the forecast period, which will drive the growth of the plastic-based water packaging market.”
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Weighty matters
On-trend, lightweighting involves the redesigning of packaging material to reduce the weight without compromising its quality (see Arrowhead water bottles reach recycled content milestone ). Plastic packaging vendors’ R&D teams develop packaging that is light and easy to carry. Moreover, reducing the weight of packaging material and modifying pack formats to light configurations helps vendors to reduce the cost of transportation.
An average commercial 0.5-liter PET bottle weighs 12 grams, though the PET bottles manufactured by Sidel (Hünenberg, Switzerland), for example, weigh only 7.95 grams. These bottles have 34% less weight than average commercial PET bottles. They offer 32% more top-load performance, saving up to $13 million per year on raw materials.
“Lightweight bottles require less raw materials for their production, which, in turn, increases the recycling rate of these bottles by 75% and decreases the energy required for production by 23%,” explains says Sharan. “It also reduces the greenhouse gas emissions by 26% and the amount of waste entering landfills by more than 20%.”
Manufacturers are designing PET-based water bottles using different methods to increase their barrier properties. Innovative technologies are being implemented to increase impermeability and eliminate the risk of harmful substances entering these containers. One such technology is plasma coating, wherein protective layers are applied to PET films have a thickness of 50 nanometers, yet the bottles remain easy to recycle.
For more information, view the report .
The development of this project has been co-funded with the support of the LIFE financial instrument of the European Union
[LIFE16 ENV/ES/000305]
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