Larger PET wine bottles take flight

Consumer interest in beer bottled in PET has been, yes, pretty flat, but plastics’ use in wine packaging is truly starting to take flight. Proof positive comes out of the blowmolding facilities of Amcor, which has begun supplying 1L bottles to Societe de Vin Internationale LTEE, a Canadian supplier of alcoholic beverages.

Amcor already has commercial sales of wine bottles blowmolded of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in smaller sizes of 187 ml and 750 ml, but the 1L flacon is a new one for the processor. “This is an important development because it expands the market potential for barrier PET wine containers,” explained Kerry Drewry, sales manager for Amcor Rigid Plastics (Manchester, MN). “We expect continued growth for barrier PET bottles in a range of sizes for wine.”

The wine bottles’ gas barrier is applied using the Plasmax plasma coating developed years ago by then-SIG Corpoplast. The equipment uses vapor deposition to apply a silicon-oxide layer to PET bottles for the purposes of creating a barrier to oxygen ingress or, for carbonated beverages, CO₂ egress. The coating is less than 100-nm thick, transparent and resists cracking, abrasion, and delamination. The barrier coating is removed during the recycling process and is said not to contaminate the recycling stream.

Corpoplast was acquired by beverage filling equipment manufacturer KHS, and the plasma coating technology is now available for license via a German subsidiary named KHS Plasmax GmbH. (MPW has been reporting on Plasmax for many years; search PlasticToday.com for more information or start with this article on barrier packaging technologies.)

The lightweight PET barrier container is being marketed to airlines as a high-quality option that mimics glass while also delivering reduced fuel consumption and a cost savings over its glass predecessor. (Full disclosure: In our own bid to save jet fuel, MPW’s editor enjoyed a red wine out of a small PET wine bottle on a British Airways’ flight last week. The 1L bottles may have been circulating in business class.)

Air Transat charter airline in Montreal adopted the use of a lightweight 1L PET wine bottle for sustainability reasons, according to Aldo Geloso, an executive with Societe de Vin Internationale. The 54g PET stock bottle is one-eighth the weight of the previous 430g glass container. Kerry Drewry, sales manager for Amcor Rigid Plastics, said, “We expect continued growth for barrier PET bottles in a range of sizes for wine.” Based on the success so far, Societe de Vin Internationale is considering a retail launch later this year in Quebec grocery stores. Geloso said the company would target other airlines while also considering barrier PET bottles for other products such as cider in smaller sizes like 330 ml and 500 ml. —MPW Staff