With multitudes of industrial advances taking place within the marketplace, it is no surprise that the bottling industry is evolving in their bottling presentation and designs. The old glass bottles of Coca-Cola Classic are now more of a novelty than they are practical. The use and demand for recyclable and increased sustainable PET bottles has emerged since as the dominant packaging method. Packaging strategies within the bottling industry vary widely for what may seem as a rather small industry.
Consumer perception, demand for convenience and environmentally acceptable packaging - each of these factors feed into the design elements found within the bottling industry. Energy drinks, just as one example, tend to come in smaller, sleek cans - perhaps to convey the product having just the right amount of bottled energy. Think about your last trip into a grocery store or gas station. Have you ever noticed the distinct difference between the bottling strategies used between the juice, coffee and milk products? Scanning further down the aisles, there are obvious different appearances of the beer and wine products. The design of the bottle, artwork of the label and obvious brand recognition - each of these facets feed into consumer purchasing decisions. Perhaps this is all seems very The consumer eye is trained beginning as young as six months old to recognize, without reading a label, a product by it's vessel.
PET recycling rates increase
Many companies in the United States, due to the frequency and volume of production, are pursuing the trend to capitalize on the green movement, putting a greater focus on sustainability and recycling. .
Many bottles are made out of polyethylene terephthalate plastic (PET), a commonly recyclable product. So common, in fact, that the U.S. recycling rate hit its highest of 30.8 percent in 2012, according to the Associations of Postconsumer Plastics Recyclers (NAPCOR).
The organization explains that the PET postconsumer bottles recycling rate was the highest reported on record totaling 1.718 billion pounds of recycled material over the course of the year.
"The increase in the PET recycling rate is clear evidence of continued strong, domestic end-market demand for recycled PET, and we believe there's considerable scope for U.S. industry to readily absorb more recycled PET material if available," said NAPCOR Chairman Tom Busard. "In 2012 we saw significant increases in recycled PET use in fiber, sheet and film, food and beverage bottles and strapping end-market categories in the United States."
The growing recycling rates of these materials illustrates the constantly growing demand for the use of PET plastics within the bottling industry.
Glass packaging to grow
Plastics, however, are not the only materials seeing action in the bottling industry. A new report from Transparency Market Research indicates that the glass packaging market is expected to grow over the coming years, reaching nearly $60 billion by 2019. This marks a strong increase from $47.43 billion in 2012. Between 2013 and 2019, this market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3.4 percent.
Transparency Market Research explains that one of the primary reasons leading to this growth is an expected rise in the global consumption of beer. The dark-colored glass is often used in the packaging of the beverage due to its ability to restrict sunlight, according to an analysis from the Food and Beverage Packaging Magazine. According to the Transparency Market Research findings, wine and liquor make up the majority of the beverage sector, accounting for over 50 percent of consumer demands.
