Beverage containers have a rather large carbon footprint but that may all change soon.
Soft drinks company PepsiCo recently announced the development of a PET plastic bottle made entirely from plant-based, fully renewable resources. A world first, the bottle is made from bio-based raw materials that include switch grass, pine bark and corn husks.
In the future the company hopes to incorporate orange peels, potato peels, oat hulls and other agricultural by-products from the food segment of its business.
Combining biological and chemical processes, PepsiCo has identified methods to create a molecular structure that is identical to petroleum-based PET, resulting in a bottle that looks, feels and protects its product identically to existing PET beverage containers.
Production of this new product is expected to start in 2012.
