PepsiCo has developed a rival to the Coca-Cola Plant Bottle – a package made entirely of agricultural by-products from its food business, according to FoodProductionDaily.com.
The newly developed bottle contains orange peel, potato peel, oat hulls and other left over materials from its food and drink operations.
PepsiCo said the bottle is 100% recyclable and has a molecular structure identical to petroleum-based PET. In addition, the soft drinks maker claims the bottle is identical to PET drinks containers in terms of look, feel and product protection.
PepsiCo claims that its bottle “far surpasses” existing technologies. But industry analysts refused to make comparisons with other products – notably the Coca-Cola Plant Bottle.
Euromonitor said PepsiCo had not yet revealed enough information about the bottle for it to provide a clear analysis. And Dominic Cakebread, packaging analyst at Canadean, also declined to comment directly on the bottle.
Nevertheless, there appears to be two key differences between the PepsiCo bottle and the Coca-Cola Plant Bottle.
The Coca-Cola package is 30% plant-based and PepsiCo says its bottle is made wholly from plant materials.
The PepsiCo bottle is made from its own agricultural by-products and the plant-based material in the Coca-Cola bottle is made from sugar cane.
But there is another key dividing point between the two bottles. According to Euromonitor, the Coca-Cola Plant Bottle is currently used in Denmark and some western US states, with further geographic expansion planned.
Meanwhile, the PepsiCo bottle is still some way from the marketplace. Pilot production of the new bottle is due to begin in 2012 and PepsiCo plans to commercialise the package after that. — Story by FoodProductionDaily.com
