PepsiCo. (PEP) announced the release of its lightest 16.9 fl oz bottle to date. The PET bottle will be used for flavored non-carbonated beverages like its Lipton Ice Tea, Tropicana juice drinks, Aquafina FlavorSplash and Aquafina Alive.
The new bottle features a twenty percent reduction in PET plastic which the company estimates will save twenty million pounds of waste.
In addition to the reduction in plastic the new bottles will also feature a ten percent reduction in label size and a five percent reduction in the shrink wrap filmed used to wrap 12-pack multi-packs of the products.
“The challenge was to deliver significantly lighter packaging that would provide the same shelf life as the heavier bottle, withstand the manufacturing and distribution process yet not compromise aesthetics,” said Robert Lewis, vice president of worldwide beverage packaging and equipment development, PepsiCo.
Pepsi’s new bottle design was chosen from over thirty proposed designs in consumer testing conducted by the company. After the final design was established a team worked on making it the lightweight package soon to be available to consumers.
The new bottles are expected on store shelves this month.
