This Is What the World's First Biodegradable Beer Bottle Will Look Like
Leave it to the Danes to find a better way to drink beer. The makers of Carlsberg announced plans Tuesday to create a biodegradable bottle made of wood fiber that will launch in three years.
Officially named the Green Fiber Bottle, the opaque container will be unbreakable and have a visible thread structure. The ecofriendly material will also keep beverages colder for a longer period of time than traditional aluminum and glass models.
The bottles will be made from sustainably sourced wood fiber and paper pulp—similar to what's used in egg cartons—Quartz reported. The bottle caps will also be biodegradable and bio sourced.
This all sounds fine and dandy from an environmental standpoint—but how is Carlsberg planning to avoid soggy bottles? A one-piece design and protective inner coating will mitigate mushiness.
The company hasn’t said how much the bottles will cost—or if they will impact the retail price of beer—but the redesign is expected to ring in at $1.5 million.
In the life cycle of a beer bottle, the early days are the most energy-intensive. Manufacturing glass bottles of aluminum cans produces the most pollution, require both electricity and natural gas to produce, according to waste prevention specialist David Allaway. Aluminum and glass also require energy, to a lesser degree, to recycle. Biodegradable materials minimize that process because they break down naturally in landfills or are composted.
Considering how much beer Americans drink a year—50 billion pints—the amount of waste those cumulative six packs produce is not insignificant.
Carlsberg is the first brewer to announce plans to implement a biodegradable bottle, but it's not the first beverage company to implement the idea. In 2013 PaperBoy wine started selling paper-based bottles, and Pepsi filed a patent for a biodegradable can design back in March.
Original article from TakePart
