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Dean Bellefleur wonders what’s next for PET
PET innovation agenda
Dean Bellefleur is an international expert in consumer packaging design focusing on the challenges of redesigning packaging to meet both environmental and humanitarian needs. To this end he is a frequent guest speaker and continues to provide innovative insight through his writings.
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arbonated, bulk, commodity, soft drinks were the applications that in essence catapulted the PET bottle into the marketing landscape as the disruptor of choice. Since PepsiCo’s launch of the first commercial 2L PET bottle in 1970 the proliferation of the PET bottle has been unstoppable.
Originally introduced as a retail lost leader the bloated and shapeless 2 litre PET bottle with its inherent handling inefficiencies has since conquered the lucrative on-the-go segment. Despite its initial shortcomings, packaging artisans have crafted a highly desirable container that appeals to the senses. So desirable in fact, that today the PET bottle is in the consumers face 24/7, be it on the shelf or littering the landscape. Notwithstanding the crusade against PET that is currently being waged over the hormone disruptor bisphenol-A and environmental contamination, its popularity is not waning. In its bid for legitimacy the PET bottle now delivers the elixir of life, H2O to the masses. A brilliant strategic move made viable by economies of scale. With this snapshot in mind let’s dig a little deeper into the genesis of the PET bottle and its innovation agenda. Spawned from a ‘test tube’/ preform, the achievements of the PET bottle should not be blown out of proportion. The race to own the beverage market accelerated the deployment of what can only be described as rapid concept development prototypes. Particularly in the late 1990s we saw equipment suppliers jockeying from one equipment platform to another. Sales arguments bent on exploiting the benefits of a ‘hole-in-the-wall’ operation versus a multi-stage blow-mold station were penny wise. The competitive landscape wasn’t defined as yet and the flurry of acquisitions only revealed the path of least resistance. PET bottling was still anyone’s game. In fact, beverage producers were happy if they could install production units
faster than they became obsolete. Speed was of the essence; bottling speeds, speed to market, payback all of which were predicated on the speed of innovation. Those were the pioneering days of the PET bottle. But what of the innovation agenda for PET bottles? In an exhaustive effort to beat down the cost of the PET bottle ‘lightweighting’ took centre stage. The infatuation we’ve seen with lightweighting, creative as the results are, is fast approaching the boundary of flexible packaging. Too close to flexibles could be perceived as a technological regression and reminiscent of the Doypack era to many.
Rapid deployment of regional PET reclamation centres should be on the global beverage scorecard for 2011 Think closures and ask yourself should this not have been the first design priority? The consumer is all too well acquainted with spilt milk. It wasn’t until 1992 that a re-closable opening was introduced to the gabletop carton. Incidentally that was 23 years after Neil Armstrong’s walk on the Moon. Well today, there are more pressing concerns than the rate of closure development barrelling down on PET bottles. Lifecycle Management the new age religion and Wal-Mart’s packaging scorecard are driving packaging agendas today. Have no fear. There’s an upside to
these distractions. The windfall is that the packaging industry gets to rebrand itself as green and in doing so rewrites history without appearing as the villain. Packaging, traditionally the afterthought and poor cousin of any marketing campaign now leads the assault on post consumer waste. How so you ask? Left in the hands of the consumer a spent PET bottle is but litter for the dropping. Social and environmental considerations however, can no longer condone this abdication of brand responsibility. The heat is on and I’m not advocating incineration of waste. Surely the advantage goes to the brand owner that recovers their post-consumer waste for lifecycle management. As to the specific management model, let’s avoid the paralysis of debate and look to the activity in the marketplace for guidance. A note of caution, don’t be swayed by dominant ideology. Case in point, Frito-Lay’s’ 100% compostable Sun Chips bag was apparently too noisy for the consumers’ comfort to remain on the shelves. I would argue that composting is highly dependent on ‘ideal conditions’ to be considered an efficient waste management solution for FMCG’s. Biodegradable or recyclable, is the solution so elusive that the obvious has been overlooked? Or is industry intent only on engineering a solution worthy of a Nobel award? In nature, consumables are grown with an inherent regenerative seed; fruit, berries and flowers alike. Why then should the PET bottle not imitate nature and seed future bottle production from its’ essence? All too obvious an apple seed does not yield a watermelon
so expectations should be realistic. As in nature, seeds are transported by designated agents and deposited where they will flourish. Resin identification codes today facilitate recognition of PET containers for retrieval and then the ball is dropped. Lacking is the consensus on the technology that will initiate a sustainable closed lifecycle management process. Critical is the infrastructure to accumulate the mass of recyclable PET that the system is so dependent on. Complete the picture as per nature’s design and rPET will be a viable solution. Beverage brand owners can then make bold statements to the effect that they reclaim every bottle they put out into the market place and in doing so have closed the loop on recycling. At Drinktec in 2009, Krones showcased its bottle-to-bottle recycling process, emphasising economy, energy efficiency coupled with chemical avoidance to produce recycled PET flakes for the world to behold. It appears that both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have become enamoured with biopolymer solutions and in doing so are mired in development quicksand. The launch of Frito-Lay’s SunChip bag resulted in a hasty recall and Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle is but a 30% solution to an industry apparently in crisis. So when is a PET bottle not trash? When it’s converted to rPET I would say. Rapid deployment of regional PET reclamation centres should be on the global beverage scorecard for 2011. As capacity builds innovation can once again focus on functionality of the PET bottle.
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www.foodbev.com/water Issue 64 - January · February 2011
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