Amcor Rigid Packaging (ARP), Ann Arbor, MI, and Danone, Paris, have launched a fully recyclable, label-free recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) bottle for Danone’s Villavicencio water brand in Argentina.

The 1.5-Liter bottle is made from 100% rPET and offers a carbon footprint that’s 21% smaller than that of the previous bottle. Eliminating the label also ensures there are no potential contaminants in the recycled resin, which is expected to increase yields of recycled PET resin.

The new bottle incorporates the same visual elements as the previous bottle, which was made from a blend of virgin and post-consumer recycled (PCR) resins and was decorated with a polyethylene label. The new package was two years in development.

The mold technology for the label-free bottle comes from Moldintec, an independent blow mold supplier from Argentina. Moldintec used laser-based machining to create highly detailed molds for the Villavicencio bottle.

Embossed in the bottle’s surface are brand and product information. The latter includes required data such as “detailed nutrition information and legal information related [to where the product] is produced, consumer contact, expire date,” and the like, Juan Cazes, general manager of Amcor, Argentina, informs us. This information is molded along the middle of the bottle.

Moldintec won a 2022 WorldStar Award from the World Packaging Organisation for a similar label-free bottle for Danone’s Bonafont water, a brand sold in Brazil. The Bonafont bottle is also produced using laser-based molds.

Amcor sources the rPET for the label-free Villavicencio bottle from the leading PCR producer in Argentina, embracing “the local circular economy for PET,” Cazes says.

Molding of the label-free Villavicencio bottle takes place in Argentina, as well. Amcor injects preforms with 100% post-consumer PET, and Danone blowmolds the bottles. A colorant added to the PET gives the finished bottle a subtle blue hue.

Amcor has committed to making all its packaging recyclable and reusable by 2025. It is currently working in seven sustainability areas: recyclability, compostability, PCR content, biobased materials, reduced carbon footprint, responsible sourced materials, and reusability.

Danone has a goal of making 100% its packaging recyclable, reusable, and/or compostable by 2025.