Packaging breakthrough

PET has transformed the bottled water and carbonated soft drinks markets. It has had less success with beer, fruit drinks and milk.

Now Sidel has come up with a real contender for beer. Its new bottle:

• has a smooth round base like glass
• can take a crown cap like other beer bottles
• saves up to 86% of the weight of glass
• withstands flash and tunnel pasteurisation
• offers a six month shelf life
• and, of course, it’s clear, doesn’t shatter and so on.

At the moment, although 5 billion bottles of beer are sold in PET each year, this represents only 2% of total consumption. It’s not hard to imagine this figure rising substantially in the coming years.