Sidel recently received the award for "Best Environmental Sustainability Initiative" at the 2013 Global Bottled Water Awards.
StarLite is Sidel's proprietary design for the base of PET bottles for still drinks. The base design makes it possible to reduce the total package weight by up to one gram of material in a 0.5 liter bottle or two grams in a 1.5 liter format, helping to create PET bottles with even less material. This, in turn, reduces the consumption of energy in the production process, the company said.
Now in their 10th year, the Global Bottled Water Awards are an annual awards initiative designed to recognize a variety of categories within the industry. Established by Zenith International, a consultancy that advises the industry on business and technical issues, the categories include product innovation, packaging, and marketing, as well as sustainability.
The StarLite design was developed by Sidel as a shape to optimize the resistance and stability of the bottle base, which can also help improve overall bottle rigidity.
The base design is especially suited to bottles containing water and juices and, under certain conditions, can be used for other still beverages.
To achieve the final design, Sidel's experts analyzed many different possibilities, carried out numerous computer simulations and then followed those up with actual physical tests.
In those tests, the resulting StarLite design reportedly showed an increase of up to 30% in top-load dent resistance when the bottles were loaded on a pallet. The chosen design also exhibited up to a 55% increase in side-load resistance, which will prove a particular advantage, for example, when the bottle is on a conveyor or in a vending machine. Overall pallet integrity also increased by up to 50% during transportation. The design helps to cut the amount of material used and therefore lowers energy consumption during production.
Commenting on the award, Vincent Le Guen, VP for packaging & tooling at Sidel, said, "Sustainability is a real focus for the beverage industry. It is also at the heart of our research and development into new approaches to packaging liquids in PET, along with providing ways to take cost out of the production process while ensuring that the integrity of the package is not compromised. We are delighted that with this award an international panel of judges has recognized the contribution that StarLite can make."
The StarLite base is an important and integral part of Sidel's new RightWeight concept bottle, which PlasticsToday covered in December.
