Alpla and Tönissteiner release rPET bottle

Alpla, an Austria-based packaging producer, and Germany-based Tönissteiner Sprudel have developed a reusable recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) bottle.

Following approximately one year of development, Alpla says its reusable rPET bottle, apart from the label and closure, is made entirely out of postconsumer recycled material and can be fully recycled at end-of-life. The rPET is produced and provided by Alpla Recycling.

“The packaging of the future is sustainable, light and safe,” says Georg Pescher, managing director at Alpla Germany. “We at Alpla already deliver in this regard, with a circular economy based on the bottle-to-bottle principle, weight optimization and systematic design for recycling. Working with Tönissteiner, we have brought all of these approaches together to create a new reusable solution made entirely of rPET.”

The bottle was designed to fit with Tönissteiner’s existing 12-bottle crates. Up to 160 crates containing 1,920 bottles can be transported in one load, reducing the bottle sorting work of wholesalers and retailers, Alpla says.

According to the company, end-of-life bottles can be turned into rPET at Alpla Recycling plants and recycled into new bottles. Laser markings indicate the number of cycles a bottle has been through and complement the quality controls at the refilling stage. Tönissteiner and Alpla say they are establishing a bottle-to-bottle loop with their own supply of reusable rPET bottles.

“Tönissteiner stands for the sustainable use of resources,” says Hermann-Josef Hoppe, managing director at Tönissteiner. “In Alpla, we have found an innovative partner for the introduction of our first own reusable rPET bottle. The climate-friendly bottle has been perfectly tailored to our sorting, bottling and transport processes.”