0.33l Hardened Returnable Bottle for the Austrian Market
Country: Austria
Category: Alcoholic Beverages
Glass is one of the most sustainable and environmentally friendly packaging materials. It is made from natural resources, does not release harmful substances, and is 100 percent recyclable. However, its weight and stability have traditionally been seen as disadvantages.
Vetropack, as the world's first glass packaging manufacturer, has developed an innovative hardening technology that largely eliminates these drawbacks, while also enhancing the sustainability of glass packaging.
Bottles made from hardened glass are around 30 percent lighter than conventional bottles. This is particularly important for returnable bottles, as they must be transported back to the bottling plants. Vetropack's introduction of this hardening technology and the new returnable bottles shows great potential to revolutionize the market for sustainable and innovative packaging solutions. The combination of reduced weight, increased stability, and improved logistics makes these bottles an attractive option for bottlers and consumers focused on sustainability. This innovation could strengthen the market position of brands and help meet the growing demand for sustainable products.
The development of the new 0.33l standard returnable bottle was driven by the concept of a returnable system. Only by considering the entire logistics chain holistically can both the ecological and economic potentials be fully realized in the long term.
• The bottle and crate design, as well as pallets and logistics, are harmonized. Six crate rows (96 crates) can be transported per pallet, instead of the usual five.
• Due to reduced wear, the bottle can achieve around 20 percent more cycles than conventional containers, offering not only ecological advantages.
• Weighing 210 grams, the bottle is 30 percent lighter than conventional standard bottles. Less weight means easier handling and reduced CO2 emissions.
• CO2 emissions are reduced to a quarter, both due to savings in logistics and the high percentage of recycled glass used in raw glass production. Currently, over two-thirds of the raw glass is made from cullet.
• Glass is made from natural resources and is 100 percent recyclable. One kilogram of recycled glass can be endlessly turned into one kilogram of new glass without any loss of quality.
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• Technical Functionality
Hardened glass is not a new concept and has long been used in car windows, for example. However, this process had previously faced clear limitations in glass bottles. The reason is that during the hardening process, the bottle blanks need to be intensely heated and then rapidly cooled. This is the only way to create the necessary internal tension and stability in the material. While this is not a problem for flat glass, the varying wall thicknesses in glass bottles can cause cracks during hardening.
Vetropack’s research and development team worked for nearly ten years on a manufacturing process for lightweight, hardened glass bottles. With the new innovative technology, it is now possible to thermally harden glass bottles for the first time— a solution that Vetropack is currently the only glass packaging manufacturer in the world to offer.
The thermal process places particularly high demands on the production of bottles due to the intense heating and cooling. This affects both the material quality and the production process and equipment. For this reason, only high-quality bottles are used. Additionally, the entire hardening process is precisely adjusted to the individual container and its shape. It is a highly sophisticated, technologically demanding process that cannot be easily implemented on any production line.
• Design
The design of the 0.33l thermally hardened returnable bottle is derived from the 0.5l standard returnable beer bottle. This shape is already familiar to consumers as a returnable bottle, and for this reason, it was selected by the members of the Returnable Logistics Association as the most suitable form. The bottle has been on the market since February 2024 and is already represented by several well-known brands.
• Convenience
Weight and durability have traditionally been seen as weaknesses for glass packaging, especially in returnable systems. Vetropack's thermally hardened returnable bottles have addressed exactly these aspects— they are proven to be significantly more robust than conventional standard bottles while also being one-third lighter. This results in up to 20 percent more bottle cycles and weight savings in transport. This not only means increased convenience for bottlers, with significantly fewer breakages on the filling lines, but also for end consumers, who appreciate the reduced weight when carrying the bottles home.
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Category: SPECIAL AWARD - Sustainability
Special Award: Bronze Award
Two thirds of the bottle are made from recycled glass. The other primary raw materials can mostly be sourced locally (e.g. quartz is from Melk which is approx. 15km away, the farthest is Soda from Bosnia).
Austria has a very well functioning system for reusables, most of which are standard bottles and can be used by a whole industry.The idea of a returnable 0.33l standard bottle for joint use by various breweries has already been around for a long time on the Austrian beer market. But as the issue of sustainability gained importance for consumers, pressure grew to turn the idea into reality. This raised the question as to which bottle would be suitable. A working group set up within the Austrian logistics association for reusable packaging (Logistikverbund Mehrweg) has been focusing on the technical feasibility of the future system. The shape of the bottle had to meet several requirements: it had to be suitable for people to insert in standard reverse vending machines (RVMs); the product needed to be identifiable as a returnable bottle, and it also had to be suitable for a variety of crate formats.
This marks a revolution for the Austrian beer market.
Consumers now have lighter bottles to carry home, the lighter bottles cool faster in the fridges and we have a fully thought through system for this amazing bottle.
Weighing 210 grams, the bottle is 30 percent lighter than conventional standard bottles. Less weight means easier handling and reduced CO2 emissions.
• The bottle and crate design, as well as pallets and logistics, are harmonized. Six crate rows (96 crates) can be transported per pallet, instead of the usual five.
• Due to reduced wear, the bottle can achieve around 20 percent more cycles than conventional containers, offering not only ecological advantages.
• CO2 emissions are reduced to a quarter, both due to savings in logistics and the high percentage of recycled glass used in raw glass production. Currently, over two-thirds of the raw glass is made from cullet. For every 10% of recycled glass that is used, 3% of the energy and 7% of the CO2 emissions are saved.
The bottle concept is a standard reusable bottle which is made accessible to all beer brewers in Austria. Thanks to the thermal hardening process the bottle is much more robust than a usual bottle and can achieve around 20 percent more cycles. Afterwards it still can be recycled like any other glass bottle or jar.