Eco2Bottle – the climate-neutral glass bottle
Consumers are looking for drinks they can take on the go, but that doesn’t mean they’re turning their backs on sustainability credentials. After soulbottles – a retailer in sustainable drinking bottles – set out their ambition to produce glass drinking bottles with the help of biomethane, Wiegand-Glas partnered up with bmp greengas to manufacture ‘greener’ glass bottles.
It’s no secret that glass production can be an energy-intensive industry. Although glass is 100% recyclable, the production of a glass bottle creates CO2 emissions. Yet green gases like biomethane may be the way forward. The green gas is produced from municipal waste, while also coming from Germany and being made into bottles in Germany, thus creating a low-CO2 value chain in both production and transport.
As a result, the use of biomethane – together with the increased use of waste glass, improved transport packaging and the use of green electricity – is said to reduce emissions by more than 75% compared to the original 1 litre soulbottle.
Seeing the potential of biomethane to transform glass packaging, Wiegand-Glas set their sites on developing environmentally friendly packaging solutions. With Eco2Bottle, a concept was developed for the first time that analyses all steps and consistently uses materials to their full potential, making use of all the tools in our toolbox to reduce CO2-emissions in one product. It takes into account various measures to improve the CO2 footprint and can be applied to any existing glass packaging.
The result? Eco2Bottle, a greener glass packaging solution. The ‘greener wine bottle’ produced in collaboration with an academic group of undergraduate students majoring in International Wine Business of the Hochschule Geisenheim University resulted in a climate-neutral wine bottle made of guaranteed 93% recycled glass. This was the starting signal for the Eco2Bottle concept and they are now expanding this unique concept to the packaging of other beverages and food products.
Julian Offermann, buyer at soulproducts, said: “We are pleased that we were able to convince our long-term partner Wiegand-Glas of the idea so quickly and that they have expanded the Eco2Bottle concept with our product.”
Lukas Neubauer, Head of Controlling & Corporate Development at Wiegand-Glas said: “In addition to recycled glass, we now also use biomethane in the production process for all soulbottles. We have significantly reduced the CO2 footprint of the product again.”
What began in 2020 as a package of measures with an additional compensation offer for wine bottles has now been expanded to include bottle production for soulproducts with biomethane, among others. The commitment to sustainability goes beyond the bottle neck: anything that can’t currently be avoided or reduced is compensated for by investments in climate protection projects.
As one of the most sustainable bottles on the market, Eco2Bottle has been awarded the CO&CO SELECTED Award 2021 by CO&CO Magazine, the trade magazine of the international world of design. .
And best of all? They’re not just low-carbon, plastic-free and front of the pack on innovation – they’re also incredibly stylish for taking on the go. It’s no wonder that they’ve set their sights on making the cleanest drinking bottle in the world.
Wiegand-Glas is a family-run group of companies, committed to innovative packaging concepts made of glass and PET. With a history that goes back around 450 years and plenty of experience in development and production, they have become one of the most successful container glass manufacturers in Europe, while maintaining their strong regional roots as an employer in Bavaria and Thuringia.
