While Australian environment ministers reported on December 15, 2011 the substantial costs of a national Container Depositing Scheme (CDS), Australia’s leading recycling company Visy is advocating against a similar scheme for Victoria. As previously reported by Australian Food News, the Northern Territory (NT) has now implemented its own “Cash for Containers” recycling scheme, modelled on South Australia (SA)’s Container Deposit scheme, which has been operating since 1977. Although there... ...Read more »

The Coca-Cola Company has launched new plant-based recyclable plastic bottles for its Dasani bottled water and Odawalla juices, juice drinks, smoothies and protein drinks across the US. The new PlantBottle packaging is made from sugarcane ethanol instead of fossil fuels. Single-serve Odwalla packages are made from “up to 100 percent” plant-based materials with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic. PET bottles for Dasani are made with “up to 30 percent” plant-based materials. The... ...Read more »

Australia’s largest soft drink producer, Coca-Cola Amatil, is considering making its own plastic bottles once again, seven years after selling their bottle manufacturing operations. The Australian bottler of Coke is seriously considering the proposal, according to a report in today’s Australian Financial Review. Amatil sold their bottle manufacturing operations to Visy in 2002 for $157 million as they focussed on manufacturing, selling and distributing their beverages. However, improvements... ...Read more »

Australian packaging giant Amcor has reported net profit for the first half fell 29.5 per cent on write-downs and the negative impact of currency changes. Profit fell 9.5% when one-off items were excluded. “The first half result reflects the defensive nature of many of our businesses, combined with the benefit from translating overseas earnings into Australian dollars at a lower average exchange rate,” Amcor’s Managing Director and CEO, Mr Ken MacKenzie said. “The flexibles... ...Read more »

Victorian-based Cool Change Natural Spring Water has launched Australia’s first beverage (spring water) packaged in a bottle made from plants, as they seek to “go green” in an industry often criticised for a lack of sustainability. Rather than packaging a drink in PET, a polymer (plastic) derived from crude oil, Cool Change Natural Spring Water bottles are made using Ingeo PLA, derived from annually renewable sources – plants. This new material is derived from plant sugars... ...Read more »

The introduction of more environmentally-friendly packaging is beginning to lead to changes in the beverage industry, particularly within the bottled water sector. Traditionally plastic bottles have been made from PET (polyethylene terephthalate), a petroleum-based plastic,  but new options are beginning to crop up. One such example is made from Ingeo, a plant based natural plastic. NatureWorks LLC, the makers of Ingeo, claim that if all plastic PET beverage bottles made from crude oil sold today... ...Read more »