Carlsberg Goes Green; Switches Out Glass Bottles For Paper Bottles

In light of the whole climate change debate about how we should do more to save the environment, Danish beer makers Carlsberg has also joined the bandwagon to do their part in becoming more environmentally friendly.

According to CNN, Carlsberg released two prototypes of their newly designed bottles where they switched out their original glass bottles for paper bottles last Thursday, 10 October.

How are paper bottles going to be able to hold beer?

Well, they have an inner barrier.

Going Environmentally Friendly By Reducing Carbon Emissions

One prototype is lined with a thin film of recycled PET plastic while the other is lined with a bio-based lining. These prototypes will be used to test which works better and whether the beer would still seep out.

Myriam Shingleton, vice president of group development for Carlsberg, explained that the paper bottles are made of sustainably-sourced wood fibre, which is more environmentally friendly than aluminium and glass bottles.

She further added that the production process of using these paper bottles will also require less energy.

This will help them to reduce their carbon emissions as well, thus allowing them to achieve their goal of lowering their impact on the environment whilst also offering their consumers a more unique packaging.

Difficult To Source For Materials

According to CNN, Carlsberg has worked on the new packaging since 2015, and are still working on it because of two challenges.

One is the fact that they are afraid that the inner lining of the paper bottles would alter the taste of their beer and another is that it is difficult to source for the inner lining materials as they are not available commercially.

Nevertheless, Carlsberg seems to be doing the best that they can to ensure that paper bottles become a reality even though it may still take a couple more years to fully develop.

Shingleton also added that these paper bottles, once developed, would serve as an additional option for their consumers, rather than become the only option. This means that their cans and bottles would still be available.

Other Measures Taken To Reduce Carbon Footprint

Carlsberg also previously came up with various innovations to reduce their carbon footprint, one of them being their “snap packs” in which their cans of beer are no longer bound to one another by plastic rings but rather, recyclable glue.

Plastic rings cannot be recycled and often pose a threat to ocean animals and pollute the environment, hence Carlsberg decided to change their packaging to do their part in saving the environment.

This innovation took them three years to develop.

Hopefully, they can make paper bottles a reality soon so that we, too, can do our part when we drink beers.

Nothing beats cracking open a cold one with your buddies while being eco-friendly.