Ardagh and Coke crack sub-200g glass bottle
The packaging giant says it achieved the new weight bottle (pictured) for the UK market, through a series of incremental design improvements since 2005 (when the bottle weighed 240g) that enabled it to retain the Coke bottle’s hourglass shape.
Carsten Berkau, design manager for Glass Europe at Ardagh Group, said: “Light-weighting is an ongoing process through well-established design and manufacturing techniques.
“Our task is keep the brand shape, whilst determining the stress points and the optimum weight of a glass bottle. State of the art technology ensures that when we are challenged, we can respond with even greater precision.”
Other Coca-Cola projects
The light-weighting project also involves 330ml Sprite and Fanta bottles, in addition to the smaller 200ml Coca Cola ‘mixer’ bottle.
The 200ml container has had its weight reduced in three stages during the same timeframe, from 170g in 2002 to its current weight of 140g.
Ardagh said it is also working with Coca-Cola on a number of other sustainability projects to cut energy and CO2 emissions.
For instance, heat exchangers installed for a pilot project at Ardagh’s Dongen glass plant in The Netherlands transfer recovered energy via hot water to Coke’s nearby bottling plant.
