Coca Cola and Carlsberg to introduce new plant-based bottles

A collection of global corporations has backed a project aimed at developing plant-based biodegradable bottles by 2023.

Coca Cola, Carlsberg and L’Oréal are among companies supporting the “Paper Bottle Project,” executed by Dutch renewable chemicals company Avantium, paper packaging developer BillerudKorsnäs, and bottle manufacturers ALPLA.

The project will use plant sugars to develop more eco-friendly plastics than those made with fossil fuels.

The plastic - known as ‘PEF’ - could be used to line cardboard bottle from the inside, to make them both functional and biodegradable. This PEF reportedly has better thermal barrier properties than standard PEF.

The plant-based polymer is 100 per cent recyclable. It will also rot within a year if using a composter and within a few years if simply left outside, but it should be recycled where possible. Standard plastics can take hundreds of years to decompose.

"This plastic has very attractive sustainability credentials because it uses no fossil fuels and can be recycled - but would also degrade in nature much faster than normal plastics do,” said Avantium chief executive Tom van Aken.

More companies are expected to announce partnerships with the project over the coming months.

Around the world 300 million tonnes of plastic is made from fossil fuels.