Great news!
It is now common knowledge just how damaging plastic is to the environment. It only decomposes after many hundreds of years, sea creatures eat it or get trapped in it and die, and it fills up landfills at an alarming rate. Scientists believe that as much as eight million metric tons of plastic makes its way into the world’s oceans every year, that’s the same as the weight of 90 aircraft carriers.
To combat this, large companies such as Coca-Cola, Absolut, L’Oreal and Carlsberg will be switching to new biodegradable bottles which break down organically and therefore avoids much of the harm caused by single-use plastic.
These bottles are going to be created by the Paper Bottle Company (Paboco) who create the disposable material using plant-based sugars as oppose to petroleum-based plastics (a polymer known as PEF) that are currently used – wonderful! The initiative was first started by BillerudKorsnäs, a paper company, in 2013 and have been assisted by research companies such as Avantium and ALPLA. Paboco hopes to have all their products ready for consumer use by 2023.
Carlsberg who are a long time supporter of the project, has already unveiled its first paper bottle to great applause. They said in a statement:
“We are working on developing the world’s first ‘paper’ beer bottle made from sustainably-sourced wood fibres that is both 100% bio-based and fully recyclable.”
The bottles are expected to biodegrade within a year, as oppose to the few hundred years that it normally takes for their plastic bottles to break down. Technical Director of Pabloco, Christina Carlsen, said:
“Being part of this journey from the beginning, inventing the technology and building the first machine for the paper bottle with my bare hands is my chance to make a difference. A difference towards a sustainable world for future generations. What we are doing is not just a new bottle, we are making a difference.”
Fighting against single-use plastics is one of the most pressing concerns for environmentalists. Not only does it stop more plastic entering the ocean, but they will then know that their plastic clean-up operations are actually removing the net quantity of plastic in the ocean, as oppose to simply stemming the tide. It is hoped that many other companies will make similar moves and that soon legislation will be in place whereby countries ban the use of single-use plastic, although that does seem to be some way off.
Regardless, this is a great move by these companies and we salute them!
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