
Indorama Ventures, one of the world’s sustainable chemical companies, and SIPA, a PET packaging technology specialist, recently launched their transparent sustainable PET sparkling wine bottle exclusively at Pack Expo Las Vegas.
The award-winning PET packaging solution for sparkling wine provides brands with a fully recyclable option that is said to maximize logistics efficiencies, minimize handling risks, run on existing glass-filling lines, and has a lower carbon footprint 1. The latest launch is the development of a monolayer transparent bottle including a barrier, to replicate the glass-like look of traditional sparkling wines – allowing consumers to see the color and effervescence of the liquid.
Dr Patrick Amrhein, managing director, Indorama Ventures Polymers Germany said “This new clear bottle innovation showcases how the partnership between Indorama Ventures and SIPA allowed us to face the challenge of creating a transparent thick-walled PET sparkling wine bottle, by developing a modified resin that combines a monolayer barrier functionality with glass like appearance, in less than six months. This combines the touch and the appearance that results in an appealing PET sparkling wine bottle with a high shelf-life.”
Indorama Ventures’ advanced barrier resin delivers a monolayer PET sparkling wine bottle with a minimum shelf life of 24 months, and the packaging has glass-like clarity while being uniquely able to protect the sparkling wine’s taste and effervescence. The new bottle is fully recyclable in the standard clear PET stream.
The benefits of changing to PET for wine bottles are plentiful. A key example is the CO 2 footprint of PET is significantly lower compared to that of a glass bottle, traditionally used for wine. Glass is processed at 1,400 °C and PET at 260 °C, and with glass bottles seven-times the weight of a PET bottle, the production process alone results in a sizable reduction of 36% 2 . The new clear bottle follows the global launch of the traditional green PET wine bottle, in May 2023.
Marco Brusadin, Global Packaging Development director at SIPA, said, “This launch of the first transparent PET sparkling bottle sets a new standard for sustainable sparkling wine bottles. Our innovation allows the same look and feel of traditional bottles, but gives many advantages such as recyclability, sustainability, and logistics ease. We also made sure that wine companies can swap to PET at no cost, as extensive tests have proven that PET bottles can run on filling lines designed for glass bottles.”