After Carlsberg and Johnnie Walker, the latest alcohol brand to trial paper bottles is Absolut. As part of a three-month pilot test, the vodka brand will be sold in paper bottles in 22 Tesco stores across Greater Manchester throughout the summer. Made from 57% paper, the bottles will include a recyclable plastic barrier, with customers able to recycle the packaging as paper through normal household waste. Following trials of the bottle at festivals in the UK and Sweden, this will be the first time such paper bottles will have been sold commercially in-store by a global spirits company. “This is a step closer towards our vision of a fully bio-based bottle,” said Elin Furelid, Director of Future Packaging at Absolut. “We are exploring packaging that has a completely different value proposition. Paper is tactile, it’s beautiful, it’s authentic, it’s light. That was our starting point, but this is not just an idea on paper.”

20/20 Custom Molded Plastics, LLC, an Inteplast Group affiliate, has acquired the assets of Covington, GA - based Vantage Products Corporation and will expand its injection molding business there. Through this new facility, 100 employment opportunities are anticipated over the next two years. Vantage, founded in 1978, was a manufacturer of polypropylene funeral services merchandise. However, 20/20 is slated to offer a wider variety of custom molded products to its customer base via its increased capacity at the 100,000 square-foot plant which houses two 2,500-ton presses and a 300-ton press. Some products 20/20 already manufactures include pallets, carts, and pool panels.

Mondi, a global leader in packaging and paper, has collaborated with Skånemejerier to create a mono-material, polypropylene (PP) based packaging for, among others, ICA’s Hushållsost cheese. The new packaging comprises a mono-material base web and lidding film, all of which is produced and printed by Mondi before being converted for 1kg and 2kg blocks of cheese by Skånemejerier. It will be sold in leading Swedish supermarket ICA and now comes in packaging that is designed for recycling. Mondi’s mono-material solution provides high barriers against oxygen and water vapours, keeping the product fresh on the supermarket shelf. It offers high puncture resistance protecting the cheese, and great printability so that the brand and recycling messages can be communicated well on-pack.