Rockware Glass Develops Spirit Bottle Using Less Glass

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Letsrecycle.com reported that the new bottle, weighing in at 298g, is now available for Rockware's customers to purchase, and with less glass means less waste would be produced once the bottles are used.



According to Rockware marketing communications manager Simon Morgan, the new bottles could be on supermarket shelves in 2007.



The West Yorkshire company believes it is the first bottle of its kind in the UK, although it said that there was a company in Japan working on a similar product.



Rockware has spent the last 18 months designing the bottle in collaboration with WRAP as well as several retailers and bottle fillers. WRAP has been working to help encourage reductions in glass waste since March.



The company has said that the bottles are as sturdy and as aesthetic as the heavier bottles. Lightweighting has been achieved by altering the distribution of the glass, Rockware explained.



Savings

The lightweighting of bottles offers the potential for significant savings in waste arisings, however Rockware said despite using less material, the cost of producing the bottles is unlikely to change because of the additional monitoring needed.



Mr Morgan explained: "Usually these bottles are around 340g, so if a company buys a million of these bottles that’s 40g times a million glass saved. However they need to be monitored a lot closer so the cost saved in the glass purchasing goes towards this."



At this point the lightweight bottles are only available for "off the shelf" companies, like smaller distillers, Mr Morgan said, rather than the large manufacturers that have their own bottle designs.



However he added: "Large companies that have their own bottle shapes have to provide their own moulds, and that can be expensive. The standard bottle we produce tends to be used by smaller distillers that take standard bottles and then decorate them.



"But we have had contact with some major companies about the possibility of introducing it for their bottles. Now we have produced this lightweight bottle we can look at doing it for different sizes," he added.



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