The end of the plastic bottle? - 22nd May 2020

There could soon be a new type of bottle for your drinks. The new bottle will be made from a new plant-based plastic.

Among the companies interested in the 'Paper Bottle Project' are Coca Cola, Carlsberg and L'Oreal. The project intends to create plastic made from plant sugars instead of fossil fuels.

The new bottles will have cardboard on the outside, and a plant-based plastic on the inside. The plastic will be strong enough to hold drinks and keep them cold. You can recycle the bottle by separating the cardboard and the plastic. The plastic only takes one year to break down.

The plastic is made by breaking down plant sugars found in corn, wheat or beets. These are then used to make a new plant-based plastic material.

The bottles are designed by three companies: Dutch chemicals company Avantium, packing developer BillerudKorsnäs, and bottle manufacturer Alpla. The companies hope that the new bottles will reduce plastic pollution.

Around 300 million tonnes of plastic is made each year. Most of this plastic is not recycled and ends up in our oceans. This has a huge effect on the global climate crisis.

Avantium hopes the new plastic bottles will be ready by 2023. The company’s boss, Tom van Aken, says the project is still continuing even with the global lockdowns.