MILWAUKEE – The first plastic bottle made entirely from plant-based materials made its debut Wednesday at the World Expo in Milan, Italy, the bottle's developers announced Wednesday.
Coca-Cola has been making plant-based bottles since 2009, but the plastic in those bottles was only 30 percent from plant-based materials.
Technology developed by biofuels and biochemicals company Virent Inc., of Madison, Wis., enabled plant-based materials to be used on the 70 percent of the bottle that previously used petroleum.
Coca-Cola says it's working "to develop a more responsible plant-based alternative to packaging traditionally made from fossil fuels and other nonrenewable materials."
The PlantBottle technology converts natural sugars found in plants into the ingredients for making PET plastic bottles. The packaging looks, functions and recycles like traditional polyethylene terephthalate plastic but has a lighter carbon footprint on the planet and its scarce resources, according to the bottling company.
Virent said that paraxylene was produced at its demonstration plant in Madison. Taiwan-based Far Eastern New Century then worked with Virent and Coca-Cola to convert the paraxylene into a renewable PET resin.
"Today is a pioneering milestone within our company's packaging portfolio," said Nancy Quan, Coca-Cola global research and development officer, in a statement Wednesday.
Coca-Cola plans to have commercial production of the 100 percent plant-based bottles by 2020.
