Nestlé has unveiled new Perrier water bottles created with ground-breaking recycling technology.
The bottles were produced as part of the Carbios global consortium to support the industrialisation of an innovative technology that allows plastic to be endlessly recycled while maintaining properties virtually equivalent to virgin plastics. Consortium members include L’Oréal, Suntory Beverage & Food Europe and PepsiCo.
Using this novel technology, experts at Nestlé’s research and development cente for Waters in Vittel, France, produced the first Perrier 50cl prototype bottles made from coloured, recycled PET. The prototypes were thoroughly tested for safety, quality and performance, and adapted to withstand the pressure of carbonated water.
While recycled PET bottles already exist, this new technology, when developed at industrial scale, will help increase the amount of PET plastic that can be recycled.
Jean-Francois Briois, Nestlé Waters Head of Packaging, Material Science and Environmental Sustainability, said: “Thanks to this partnership with Carbios, we are able to achieve the great challenge of combining quality, iconic design and sustainability.
“When we reach industrial scale, this enzymatic recycling technology will enable us to produce high-quality rPET bottles and help Nestlé in its journey to reduce the use of virgin plastics.”
The Carbios technology uses enzymes from naturally occurring micro-organisms to break down PET plastic into its constituent parts, which can then be converted back into new, virgin-grade equivalent plastic.
The groundbreaking process enables the production of recycled PET from any type of PET plastic. This allows the recycling of more types of PET plastic that would otherwise go to waste or be incinerated, thus creating an endless, fully closed loop for plastic recycling.
Nestlé’s R&D expertise and infrastructure was also leveraged to create bottle preforms using the technology for other Carbios consortium members. Each member then further blew up the preforms into specific bottle shapes according to their needs.
The Carbios partnership and resulting innovations are part of Nestlé’s continuous efforts to shift from virgin plastics to food-grade recycled plastics and accelerate the development of innovative sustainable packaging solutions.