Plastic bottles had typically been lightweighted by simply using less material. However, there is a limit to how thin the bottle walls can be while maintaining bottle strength. Nampak Plastics has developed Infini which is an innovative and lightweight range of high density polyethylene (HDPE) milk bottles, with over 500 million sold into the UK dairy industry. (Check out the PlasticsToday article for a Q&A with the company). 

It has resulted in the world's lightest 4pint (2.27L) 32 gram bottle, which contains up to 20 percent less material and up to 30 percent recycled HDPE. Nampak is the leading supplier of HDPE bottles to the dairy and juice industries and, based on Infini being the bottle of choice, it can save the UK milk packaging industry 30,000 tons of resin per annum, and could further reduce carbon footprint up to 30 percent with recycled HDPE. Infini will also be manufactured under license for the Australian and New Zealand markets in 2014, and discussions are in progress with licensing partners in US, European, Asian and African markets for liquid dairy and non-dairy bottle packaging applications.

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