Suntory sprouts plant-based plastic bottles

Suntory has introduced a PET bottle that is made from 100% plant-based materials. The bottles were developed in partnership with Anellotech and feature material sourced entirely from non-food biomass and feedstock, in order to prevent competition with the food supply chain. The development and introduction of the bottle is part of Suntory’s aim of eliminating its virgin plastic use in its PET supply.

The bottle will be used for the Orangina brand in Europe and its Suntory Tennensui bottled water range in Japan. It uses plant-based paraxylene from wood chips converted to terephthalic acid, combined with mono ethylene glycol made from molasses. The technology used in the plant-based bottle has been in development for over 10 years.

The multinational beverage group has worked previously to reduce its environmental impacts, with staunch efforts made to reduce the amount of plastic used in bottles, as well as their caps and labels. The new bottle will itself be wholly recyclable.

“Suntory has been entrenched in the work to create sustainable packaging solutions since 1997,” said Tomomi Fukumoto, COO of Sustainability Management at Suntory Holdings.

“This plant-based bottle prototype honours our historic dedication while shining a light not only on our path to achieving our 2030 fully sustainable PET bottle goal, but also towards our ambition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the entire value chain by 2050.”

The Suntory Group Plastic Policy outlines how it aims to reduce virgin plastics and work towards a circular economy for its packaging.