In its participation in a panel on Wasteless Supply at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Carlsberg announced a ground-breaking agreement to develop the world’s first fully biodegradable wood-fiber bottle for beverages.
The company has initiated a three-year project with packaging company ecoXpac, with the collaboration of Innovation Fund Denmark and the Technical University of Denmark, to develop a biodegradable and bio-based bottle made from sustainably sourced wood-fiber, to be known as the Green Fiber Bottle.
All materials used in the bottle, including the cap, will be developed using bio-based and biodegradable materials – primarily, sustainably sourced wood-fibers – allowing the bottle to be responsibly degraded.
“If the project comes to fruition, as we think it will, it will mark a sea-change in our options for packaging liquids, and will be another important step on our journey towards a circular, zero-waste economy,” says Andraea Dawson-Shepherd, senior VP for corporate affairs.
This latest initiative forms part of the Carlsberg Circular Community (CCC), a cooperation between Carlsberg and selected partners whose aim is to pursue a circular, zero-waste economy by using the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) framework when developing and marketing new products.
The CCC currently comprises six founding partners, with two new partners, ecoXpac and global branding agency 1HQ.
Its goal is to have 15 partners by 2016.
CCC achievements in 2014 included:
•C2C certification for Carlsberg and Somersby Cider Rexam cans in the UK,
•Primary-stage C2C assessments of six different packaging products, and
•Launch of a two-year research program on C2C and LCA (Life-Cycle Assessment) with the Technical University of Denmark.
