Coca-Cola And Carlsberg Introduce Plant-Based Bottles That Degrade In A Year
Disposal of plastic bottles is a huge contributor to the global climate crisis. In a world that is currently making 300 million tons of plastic from fossil fuels annually, we are desperate to have alternatives, and the Dutch company Avantium might have a solution for us. With the backing of major companies such as Coca-Cola, Carlsberg, and Danone, it is developing a plant-based plastic that could replace the plastic used in the food supply chain.
More info: Avantium
Coca-Cola and Carlsberg have joined forces to back Dutch biochemical company Avantium, which is developing new plant-based plastic
Image credits: piqsels
The Dutch company Avantium seeks to reduce the market’s reliance on fossil fuels by developing fully plant-based plastic. The new plastic-like material it has developed is made from corn, wheat, and beet sugars.
This material made from plant sugars would completely decompose within a year in a composter
Image credits: carlsberg
“This plastic has very attractive sustainability credentials because it uses no fossil fuels and can be recycled—but would also degrade in nature much faster than normal plastics do,” Avantium’s chief executive, Tom Van Aken, said to The Guardian.
The new plant-based bottles will dissolve in a few years if left outside in normal conditions
Image credits: Marco Verch
That could make a major change in the world since plastic pollution is a major issue nowadays and it keeps growing. Plastic bottles and pieces of microplastic can be found on every single beach in the world and are affecting sea life.
This plastic is considered a very attractive alternative, since no fossil fuels are involved in the manufacturing process
Image credits: avantium_
Back in 1950, a global population of 2.5 billion produced approximately 1.5 million tons of plastic. However, by 2016, a population of more than seven billion produced more than 320 million tons of plastic. This figure is expected keep growing and double by 2034. Therefore, any effort to reduce plastic production is vital.
It is hoped that beverages in these bottles will hit the shelves by 2023
Myriam Shingleton, Carlsberg’s vice president of group development, stated that the company aims to innovate all of its packaging formats: ”We are pleased with the progress we’ve made on the Green Fiber Bottle so far. While we are not completely there yet, the two prototypes are an important step towards realizing our ultimate ambition of bringing this breakthrough to market.”
Initially, the project will manufacture a relatively low 5,000 tons of plant-based plastic a year
“Innovation takes time and we will continue to collaborate with leading experts in order to overcome remaining technical challenges, just as we did with our plastic-reducing Snap Pack,” she continued.
The plant-based plastic will be made using sugar from corn, wheat, and beets
Image credits: paperflare
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Share on FacebookHere's hoping this works well, BUT an important quibble: there will still be complex chains of serious ecological impacts. For starters, this new material can't really involve no use of fossil fuels if it's made from crops like corn, wheat and beets. Those crops, to be grown and harvested at scale, already consume billions of gallons of oil, and billions of gallons of water. If many farms of the near future would have to grow even more of those crops for this, (plus we're still using a lot of farming to also feed people) that may mean even more farming needs to be done. How will more farming get done in the places w/ very fertile land, like Brazil? Maybe by Brazilians cutting down more of their rainforests so that the land can grow crops. (See 'Asian Palm Oil' plantations if you want to face palm over this sort of thing). So, big improvements to the status quo are possible, but we need to think carefully about tradeoffs and each step that would be involved in the proposed changes.
Thought the exact same thing - exchanging one evil for a (only possibly) lesser evil...
Load More Replies...They decompose "under normal conditions". Landfill is not a normal condition. Things buried deep in landfills without oxygen do not decompose.
As long as it is not using plants that would otherwise be used for food, its a good step. From what I read elsewhere, it was using sugars from wheat. No idea if that is used in food production. Otherwise we have the similar issue as we did with biofuels, where its more valuable to grow those than food. Then there is the question of soil nutrition and our decreasing lack of nitrogen, plus the impact of fertilisers and pesticides.
I like the idea, but I do have a couple of beers in the house that might be over a year old.
Another alternative to plastic? Great news! :) Let's hope some of them begins to replace it soon.
But it is a plastic, a biodegradable plastic made from organic material
Load More Replies...Plastics don't biodegrade, they just break into smaller and smaller bits. Does this stuff ACTUALLY biodegrade, or is it just another plastic with a shorter usable life?
"a population of more than seven billion produced more than 320 million tons of plastic" Excuse me, we have never asked for this much plastic
True. Maybe we need to start boycotting products with plastic... (speaking for myself)
Load More Replies...Here’s a point: what about those of us allergic to corn? My mother has an anaphylactic allergy to corn. Does this mean if she travels she will simply be unable to have water? (Travel via flights that is - there are always work around for driving)
Well, canned water ( and soda etc ) aren't going away any time soon, so she'll be okay so long as she plans her trips accordingly. This kind of bio-degradable packaging is a very, very long way from being common place.
Load More Replies...Hmm, we need something like edible plastic so people can eat the packaging after they've consumed the contents. Someone get on it, asap...
Here's an idea: RETURN ALL DISPOSABLES TO THE COMPANIES FROM WHICH THEY CAME.
I've always thought so. ...basically. Presently there's likely a degree of fantasy-logistics with that, but I'm onboard with the notion. It bothers me when restaurants serve food (to be eaten in-store, not take-out/to-go) in plastic/styrofoam, but have no qualms when patrons pitch it into landfill (via the restaurant's own trash bins). In such a case, 90% of that recyclable waste does not even leave the premise. And although their customers are personally required to sort their recyclable-trash at home, the food-service gets a free-pass (from what I've learned) when they're the SOURCE of all that trash. Everyday, they bring in another shipment of cups and cartons and whatnot soon-to-be landfill.
Load More Replies...Bad idea. Not only a massive use of this alternative plastic would lead to food prices increasing, but it would mean using more land and more deforestation. If they're going to use organic material it has to be waste biomass.
I don't know if anything labeled "waste" is clean enough for our drink.
Load More Replies...Why is the answer always a new way to keep being wasteful? Our behavior needs an upgrade.
Smoke and mirrors as usual from the big companies. We have to move to refills becoming the norm, so people have to bring their own containers. A huge downvote from me.
Every new produce need energy and any kind of materials! What's wrong with a glass bottle? Refund to the shop, then to bier company, fill it again! In the past (in the previous economy and political system), in Hungary was only one kind of beer bottle, every company used the same! Of course, different brand stickers. Further, we could refound to shop other bottles too (canned vegetables, marmalade). It was some pocket money for children for iceream or small chocolate! Nice heydays!
Let's hope the second generation of these are made from parts of the crop that aren't used for food, already grown, but parts of plants that aren't normally used. It means you wouldn't have to clear new land to supply it and plants that produce it would hopefully be located near already available sources. This is a nice first step though.
No, Miklos, you do not need to cut a tree, read the previous comments, it all depends on what you eat.
Load More Replies...All praise Coca Cola. The company that started the whole mess. Sorry, not impressed
Totally, they should have done nothing, right? Would nothing have been better?
Load More Replies...It is a plastic, not all plastics are derived from oil. Good plant based plastics have been around for a long time. Chewing gum is another plant based plastic. Theres a company that makes pencils, coffee mugs, guitar picks, a "bicycle spoke", rulers, sports cones, frisbees, boomerangs, door stops, "meal mates", lunch-boxes, and combs from chewing gum plastics.
Load More Replies...STOP USING PLASTIC ALTOGETHER. Grind these new bottles and serve them to CEOs and their families to see how environmentally friendly they are.
Too bad it can't be like a cartoon........and be eatable. That would be the best solution yet.
Hemp makes a nice plastic, too. Hemp grows on marginal land, and doesn't require so much by way of fertilizer. You get more hemp per acre, and you can plant multiple crops per year. Better in the long run by far. https://ministryofhemp.com/blog/why-isnt-hemp-plastic-everywhere/
Here's hoping this works well, BUT an important quibble: there will still be complex chains of serious ecological impacts. For starters, this new material can't really involve no use of fossil fuels if it's made from crops like corn, wheat and beets. Those crops, to be grown and harvested at scale, already consume billions of gallons of oil, and billions of gallons of water. If many farms of the near future would have to grow even more of those crops for this, (plus we're still using a lot of farming to also feed people) that may mean even more farming needs to be done. How will more farming get done in the places w/ very fertile land, like Brazil? Maybe by Brazilians cutting down more of their rainforests so that the land can grow crops. (See 'Asian Palm Oil' plantations if you want to face palm over this sort of thing). So, big improvements to the status quo are possible, but we need to think carefully about tradeoffs and each step that would be involved in the proposed changes.
Thought the exact same thing - exchanging one evil for a (only possibly) lesser evil...
Load More Replies...They decompose "under normal conditions". Landfill is not a normal condition. Things buried deep in landfills without oxygen do not decompose.
As long as it is not using plants that would otherwise be used for food, its a good step. From what I read elsewhere, it was using sugars from wheat. No idea if that is used in food production. Otherwise we have the similar issue as we did with biofuels, where its more valuable to grow those than food. Then there is the question of soil nutrition and our decreasing lack of nitrogen, plus the impact of fertilisers and pesticides.
I like the idea, but I do have a couple of beers in the house that might be over a year old.
Another alternative to plastic? Great news! :) Let's hope some of them begins to replace it soon.
But it is a plastic, a biodegradable plastic made from organic material
Load More Replies...Plastics don't biodegrade, they just break into smaller and smaller bits. Does this stuff ACTUALLY biodegrade, or is it just another plastic with a shorter usable life?
"a population of more than seven billion produced more than 320 million tons of plastic" Excuse me, we have never asked for this much plastic
True. Maybe we need to start boycotting products with plastic... (speaking for myself)
Load More Replies...Here’s a point: what about those of us allergic to corn? My mother has an anaphylactic allergy to corn. Does this mean if she travels she will simply be unable to have water? (Travel via flights that is - there are always work around for driving)
Well, canned water ( and soda etc ) aren't going away any time soon, so she'll be okay so long as she plans her trips accordingly. This kind of bio-degradable packaging is a very, very long way from being common place.
Load More Replies...Hmm, we need something like edible plastic so people can eat the packaging after they've consumed the contents. Someone get on it, asap...
Here's an idea: RETURN ALL DISPOSABLES TO THE COMPANIES FROM WHICH THEY CAME.
I've always thought so. ...basically. Presently there's likely a degree of fantasy-logistics with that, but I'm onboard with the notion. It bothers me when restaurants serve food (to be eaten in-store, not take-out/to-go) in plastic/styrofoam, but have no qualms when patrons pitch it into landfill (via the restaurant's own trash bins). In such a case, 90% of that recyclable waste does not even leave the premise. And although their customers are personally required to sort their recyclable-trash at home, the food-service gets a free-pass (from what I've learned) when they're the SOURCE of all that trash. Everyday, they bring in another shipment of cups and cartons and whatnot soon-to-be landfill.
Load More Replies...Bad idea. Not only a massive use of this alternative plastic would lead to food prices increasing, but it would mean using more land and more deforestation. If they're going to use organic material it has to be waste biomass.
I don't know if anything labeled "waste" is clean enough for our drink.
Load More Replies...Why is the answer always a new way to keep being wasteful? Our behavior needs an upgrade.
Smoke and mirrors as usual from the big companies. We have to move to refills becoming the norm, so people have to bring their own containers. A huge downvote from me.
Every new produce need energy and any kind of materials! What's wrong with a glass bottle? Refund to the shop, then to bier company, fill it again! In the past (in the previous economy and political system), in Hungary was only one kind of beer bottle, every company used the same! Of course, different brand stickers. Further, we could refound to shop other bottles too (canned vegetables, marmalade). It was some pocket money for children for iceream or small chocolate! Nice heydays!
Let's hope the second generation of these are made from parts of the crop that aren't used for food, already grown, but parts of plants that aren't normally used. It means you wouldn't have to clear new land to supply it and plants that produce it would hopefully be located near already available sources. This is a nice first step though.
No, Miklos, you do not need to cut a tree, read the previous comments, it all depends on what you eat.
Load More Replies...All praise Coca Cola. The company that started the whole mess. Sorry, not impressed
Totally, they should have done nothing, right? Would nothing have been better?
Load More Replies...It is a plastic, not all plastics are derived from oil. Good plant based plastics have been around for a long time. Chewing gum is another plant based plastic. Theres a company that makes pencils, coffee mugs, guitar picks, a "bicycle spoke", rulers, sports cones, frisbees, boomerangs, door stops, "meal mates", lunch-boxes, and combs from chewing gum plastics.
Load More Replies...STOP USING PLASTIC ALTOGETHER. Grind these new bottles and serve them to CEOs and their families to see how environmentally friendly they are.
Too bad it can't be like a cartoon........and be eatable. That would be the best solution yet.
Hemp makes a nice plastic, too. Hemp grows on marginal land, and doesn't require so much by way of fertilizer. You get more hemp per acre, and you can plant multiple crops per year. Better in the long run by far. https://ministryofhemp.com/blog/why-isnt-hemp-plastic-everywhere/
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