The Incredible Shrinking Beverage Package
Goods and services evolve to meet the needs of the modern consumer, but one thing that we always need (being 65% liquids, and all) are beverages to stay hydrated. Packaging technologies have long made big business out of bottling liquids for a thirsty populace. Today, the beverage industry is long expanded beyond the simple bottled milk, soda and wine of yore to bring to market electrolyte water, craft beer, cartoned coconut waters and instant vitamin lemonade…the list goes on.
Our thirst for new and exciting things in the consumer beverage industry has stoked the innovation of both the products themselves, and their packaging. It seems that the more we innovate, the less packaging material there is, the result of a product packaging trend called “lightweighting.”
A (Quick) History of Beverage Packaging
Before the ubiquity of home refrigerators, milk (and other items like eggs, butter and cream) would spoil if not refreshed in small amounts and with frequency. Long replenished by delivery service people in the jugs or other durable, reusable containers provided by customers, these products would eventually be delivered in reusable glass bottles provided by milk distributors that customers would then wash and leave out on their doorstep once empty.
Lighter and more portable than a thick, glass bottle, commercial metal cans used to store and preserve food began production early as the 1800s, but introduction of the beer can in 1935 got the ball rolling in terms of a viable way to mass package and distribute beverages. Initially either “cone topped” or featuring flat ends that required a "church key" to open (many of today’s cans are still opened this way), the invention of the pull-tab in 1959 revolutionized the metal can as a light, convenient vessel for beverages with high function and recyclability.
The use of plastic to bottle beverages went from being an expensive technology into an affordable, economically viable practice when high-density polyethylene (HDPE) was introduced in the early 1960s. Compared to glass bottles, plastic’s lightweight nature, relatively low production and transportation costs and resistance to breakage made them popular with manufacturers and customers. Today, the food and beverage industry has almost completely replaced glass bottles with plastic bottles.
While all of this was happening, the concept of carton-based packaging offered a lighter, paper-centric alternative to glass, metal and plastic packaging that continues to develop today. Around the turn of the century, the patent of the first “paper bottle” called the "Pure-Pak" featured a folding paper box for holding milk that could be glued and sealed at a dairy farm for distribution. Since, carton technologies have evolved to feature various combinations of plastic, metal and paper, moisture barriers, and/or rigid plastic closures and fitments for function and convenience.
Today, one of the most extreme examples of “lightweighted” packaging is a small, thin, flexible plastic pouch-like item called a sachet. Single-use sachets are very inexpensive to make, which brings down cost for consumers. These items also fall outside the scope of recyclability due to their small size, and are prone to end up in oceans and waterways.
The Problem with “Lightweighting”
Many of today’s beverage packaging innovations are considered more convenient and more affordable for the consumer, due to their using less natural resources to produce. They are also often marketed as making less of an environmental impact, because they take up less volume.
However, simply put, today’s most recognizable “innovations” in beverage products (i.e. juice pouches, aseptic juice and water cartons, instant drink power sachets) are difficult to recycle and considered “disposable,” tracked for landfill and the inevitable pollution of our natural ecosystems. This is because they are:
1) multi-compositional - made from a combination of different types of plastic, paper, and/or metal
2) too small to be captured by municipal recycling facilities.
The “cool,” innovative fitments that give your “lightweighted” items high functionality (i.e. straws, caps, spoons, etc.) are also not recyclable through curbside collections due to their small size.
Message in a Bottle: Where do we go?
It seems that we have come a long way from getting our milk delivered to our doorstep in glass bottles. The fact is, we can do well to look to the past to create more sustainable systems of consumption. Try to steer clear of plastic bottles; although plastic is readily recyclable in many municipalities, there is declining market for it on the backend. Opting for a reusable water or beverage bottle will help you cut down on some of your plastic consumption, as well as keep you hydrated all day.
Bigger isn’t always better, but when it comes to product packaging, namely in the beverage industry, looking to the history of what has long worked to sustain consumers (like you!) in the past can help us tap into what it is we really want out of our products.
