Issue 06/2020

Application Automotive News
Bacardi introduces the first
PHA based spirits bottle
Bacardi, the world’s largest family-owned spirits
company (Hamilton, Bermuda), has made a giant leap
forward in the fight against climate change and plastic
pollution today, as it unveils plans to put the world’s
most sustainable spirits bottle on shelf by 2023. The
new biodegradable bottle will replace 80 Million plastic
bottles ~ 3,000 tonnes of plastic – currently produced
by Bacardi across its portfolio of brands every year.
Petroleum-based plastics used by Bacardi today
will be replaced by Danimer Scientific’s Nodax PHA,
a biopolymer which derives from the natural oils of
plant seeds such as palm, canola and soy, but the
primary source will be from canola oil. The new spirits
bottle will biodegrade in a wide range of environments,
including compost, soil, freshwater and seawater, and
after 18 months disappear without leaving behind harmful microplastics. The company says its products have passed the TÜV
Austria Marine Certification standards, which indicate it will break down if it ends up in the ocean.
Bacardi rum will be the first spirit to appear in the new bottle before the plant-based material is rolled out to replace singleuse
plastic across the entire Bacardi supply chain and the company’s 200 brands and labels.
This change is part of a larger plan to completely move away from fossil-based plastics by 2030, Bacardi is also working on
a paper bottle that uses PHA as a lining. Bacardi plans to share its solutions with competitors, including details such as how
to use PHA inside the lining of caps. AT
www.bacardilimited.com
Plant-based flow-wrap for tomatoes
Located in rural Ontario Canada, Elmira’s Own Tomatoes has supplied the local and surrounding communities with delicious,
quality vegetables for many years.
This summer, Elmira’s Own took the next step: changing their conventional plastic packaging to adopt a renewable
and compostable alternative. Their delicious tomatoes are now packed in a compostable fibre pulp tray and wrapped in a
transparent, cellulose based NatureFlex film, NatureFlex NVS by Futamura (Wigton,Cumbria, UK).
NatureFlex NVS matches the ethical ethos of Elmira’s Own brand. The films are highly renewable, being manufactured from
wood pulp sourced from sustainably managed plantations. They also meet all the global standards for industrial composting
(including EN13432) and are certified to OK compost’s home composting standard for backyard composting. This means that
they can go straight into the garden compost bin, diverting
waste from landfill.
According to Stuart Horst of Elmira’s own; “Not only
does the film compost extremely fast, but it also allowed us
to increase the shelf life of our produce! That is something
very positive for our business. Preserving the quality of our
vine-ripened tomatoes is essential so that our customers
experience them at their best.”
NatureFlex NVS is designed to run on existing fresh
produce flow-wrap packaging lines. The film is ideally suited
to package fruit and vegetables: once the consumer has used
the produce, the film can simply be composted along with the
left-over peelings and other discarded scraps. AT
www.elmirasown.com | www.futamuragroup.com
bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/20] Vol. 15 29