PET Bottles Keep Shedding Weight

摘要

Sustainability, plus simple economics, keep driving PET bottle makers to ingenious feats of lightweighting. Two of the latest examples come from Amcor Rigid Plastics, Manchester, Mich., and Graham Packaging Co., York, Pa. Amcor claims to have produced "the lightest 16-oz PET salad-dressing bottle in North America." Its Curve bottle, a stock oblong container, weighs 29.5 g, almost 20% less than the industry standard of 35.3 g. It also beats out a competing 30.4-g bottle, which until now was the industry's lightest salad-dressing container. Amcor credits the firm's extensive finite-element analysis capabilities and lightweighting experience with being able to trim weight while achieving significantly higher topload strength than other lightweight plastic alternatives. The new bottle will be produced at Itasca, Ill., with up to 20% food-grade PCR (post-consumer recycled) resin.