Coles sells a lot of bottled water. Its own brand of bottled water comes in 24 pack cartons sold for $8. There's almost no personal cost to wearing this decade's hot fashion accessory. The environment is wearing the cost. So Coles is doing something about that cost too. It has moved to rPET for its bottled water.
“Visy came to present to us the details of their new food grade recycling site and possible opportunities created by it. We decided that, due to the large volumes of bottled water we sell, we could have the most positive environmental impact through looking to change the material in this category,” Adam Robinson, senior packaging technologist, Coles Brand, explained.
New materials have new requirements, so Coles began working with Asahi-owned bottler, Mountain H2O:
“During trial stages we found that the material blows very differently than non-recycled material. However, due to the engineering expertise at Mountain H20 we were able to change machinery settings to blow the bottles to an equal quality. The Coles consumer wants to do the right thing, and they expect us to as well. Using bottles made from fully recycled plastic allows us to do that,” Robinson said.
Coles rPET bottles are on shelf. Visy is supplying preforms and Mountain H20 blow the bottles inline. The environmental benefits of Coles' moving to 100% rPET bottles is communicated fully on the bottle.
“Coles Brand is always trying to improve its customer offer and we see packaging as an opportunity to do that. Packaging innovation is key focus area of the packaging team,” Robinson concluded.
