Britvic case study: Packaging

Britvic’s deal with Esterform Packaging is a £5 million investment support package for the construction of a new recycled PET (rPET) manufacturing facility here in the UK. By investing in the supply chain of high quality, food grade, recycled PET plastic, it allows Britvic to use more rPET and less virgin plastic in its packaging and it supports the creation of a circular plastics economy in Britain.

Moving from virgin to recycled plastic has long been on Britvic’s agenda, forming part of the company’s sustainable packaging strategy. However, the challenge was the limited supply of quality rPET in the UK.

So far Britvic’s strategy has already seen more than 1,500 tonnes of virgin plastic removed from the supply chain through packaging redesign since 2017. This year Fruit Shoot Hydro bottles have gone 100% rPET saving another 640 tonnes of virgin plastic a year.

The Esterform facility, when complete, will allow Britvic to go further and faster, directly removing hundreds of tonnes of virgin plastic from Britvic’s packaging, while also giving discarded plastic a new use, saving it from landfill.

These are just the initial improvements to Britvic’s packaging that the Esterform support deal will enable. In the years to come, Britvic looks forward to taking further advantage of its newly secured supply of rPET in order to ensure the long-term sustainability of all of its packaging, with the aim to have 50% of all plastic bottles in GB and Ireland made from rPET by 2025.

View Ambition 2025 Progress Report 2020