Coca-Cola’s first paper bottle prototype will be making its way from the lab to the marketplace in the second quarter of this year.
The technology was unveiled last year and will first be used as packaging for the brand’s plant-based drink, AdeZ.
Two-thousand bottles are expected to be part of the trial in Hungary, available via an e-grocery retailer.
The paper bottle project is being co-developed by Coca-Cola’s R&D team in Brussels and The Paper Bottle Company (Paboco).
Coca-Cola Europe’s R&D packaging innovation manager, Stijn Franssen, says that the technology is still in the development stages. Franssen’s team has been conducting extensive lab testing to assess how the paper bottle performs, holds up and protects its contents.
“This is new technology, and we are moving in unchartered territory,” says Franssen.
“We have to invent the technical solutions as we go along.”
Coca-Cola and Paboco hope the consumer testing phase of the project will measure the package’s performance and shopper response to the format.
