Thanks to paper packaging advancements, the beverage industry may be on the cusp of a revolution, according to Packaging Digest.
Half Shell Vodka, a craft distillery out of Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, partnered with Frugalpac, a United Kingdom-based company that makes a sturdy paperboard bottle in a range of shapes and sizes.
The collaboration opened up new markets for both companies, including deals with Target and 7-Eleven to sell Half Shell Vodka in Frugalpac bottles. Both retailers now sell one of their own alcohol brands with Frugalpac as well, Packaging Digest reported.
Paper bottles were a pipe dream for a long time. It was hard to make a product that works, let alone get consumers to trust it. However, the inroads of companies like Frugalpac could mean change is on the horizon.
The promise of paper is coming at a good time, given the sheer amount of plastic that typically supplies the world of soft and hard drinks. Industry giants like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo sell upward of 100 billion single-use plastic bottles each year. Those bottles only add to the growing microplastics crisis that is polluting human bodies and ecosystems around the world.
Plus, paper packaging is more eco-friendly overall. It requires less energy to create than plastic, which is a solid win for keeping global temperatures and extreme weather under control. The material is also much lighter to transport than glass, which helps further lower its environmental footprint.
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Not to mention, choosing paper means no longer worrying about breaking a glass bottle.
However, the solution is not perfect — yet. Frugalpac's bottle includes a plastic liner, and the responsibility to separate and recycle it still falls on the consumer.
As Packaging Digest explained, the company is collecting feedback from its partners and working to refine the bottle to be as low-impact as possible. This effort includes selling Frugalpac machinery to manufacturers in North America, India, and Australia, which are closer to the company's clients and can help simplify the supply chain.
Frugalpac is far from alone in the sustainable bottle race.
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Energy savings 💰 Other companies are testing their own designs, such as PulPac and NBCo's fiber bottles, Pulpex's paper bottle that uses a protective chemical coating instead of a liner, and Absolut's partnership with Blue Ocean Closures to make a paper cap and bottle combo, per Packaging Digest.
These solutions boil down to good business sense. The majority of consumers want the brands they buy to have a positive impact on the world, and most people also lose respect for companies that only prioritize profit over the environment, Packaging Digest reported.
"It absolutely differentiates us in the market," Half Shell Vodka's CEO and founder Harrison Holditch told Packaging Digest. His favorite part of the new bottle's success is watching customers learn about it for the first time.
"You see their eyes get real wide, and they're like, 'Wait, the whole thing's paper? There's no glass in it at all?'" he mimicked. "It's fun seeing people react that way."
"I think you're just seeing the start of this," he added.
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