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Is Carlsberg about to release a paper beer bottle?

Two prototypes and new partnerships have brought Danish brewing giant Carlsberg a step closer to releasing a paper beer bottle.

Published: 11 October 2019 13:43 CEST

Is Carlsberg about to release a paper beer bottle?

Is the glass Carlsberg bottle living on borrowed time? Photo: Kristian Juul Pedersen/Ritzau Scanpix

Carlsberg said in a press release that it was close to selling beer in paper bottles, in part to the partnership.

Having worked on development of sustainable packaging since 2015, the company is scheduled to present two prototype paper bottles in Copenhagen on Friday.

“Although we’ve not yet reached our goal, the two prototypes are a significant step on the way to achieving our ultimate ambition, which is to bring this groundbreaking technology onto the market,” deputy director of Group Development at Carlsberg, Myriam Shingleton, said via the press statement.

A ‘paper bottle union’ between Carlsberg, The Paper Bottle Company (Paboco) and three other global companies – Coca-Cola, L'Oréal and The Absolut Company – is driving the development, according to the Danish brewery.

Paboco said that the partnership with the high-profile brands would strengthen work to create sustainable packaging.

“We are working across different retail sectors, sharing risk and are together in our vision to make the paper bottle reality which would fundamentally change the sector forever,” Paboco CEO Gittan Schiöld said.

Both prototypes are constructed primarily of sustainably grown wooden fibres and have internal coatings which enable them to contain beer.

READ ALSO: Carlsberg cans plastic six-pack rings to cut waste

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Sweden's SSAB to build €4.5bn green steel plant in Luleå

“The transformation of Luleå is a major step on our journey to fossil-free steel production,” the company’s chief executive, Martin Lindqvist, said in a press release. “We will remove seven percent of Sweden’s carbon dioxide emissions, strengthen our competitiveness and secure jobs with the most cost-effective and sustainable sheet metal production in Europe.”

The new mini-mill, which is expected to start production at the end of 2028 and to hit full capacity in 2029, will include two electric arc furnaces, advanced secondary metallurgy, a direct strip rolling mill to produce SSABs specialty products, and a cold rolling complex to develop premium products for the transport industry.

It will be fed partly from hydrogen reduced iron ore produced at the HYBRIT joint venture in Gälliväre and partly with scrap steel. The company hopes to receive its environemntal permits by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO:

The announcement comes just one week after SSAB revealed that it was seeking $500m in funding from the US government to develop a second HYBRIT manufacturing facility, using green hydrogen instead of fossil fuels to produce direct reduced iron and steel.

The company said it also hoped to expand capacity at SSAB’s steel mill in Montpelier, Iowa.

The two new investment announcements strengthen the company’s claim to be the global pioneer in fossil-free steel.

It produced the world’s first sponge iron made with hydrogen instead of coke at its Hybrit pilot plant in Luleå in 2021. Gälliväre was chosen that same year as the site for the world’s first industrial scale plant using the technology.

In 2023, SSAB announced it would transform its steel mill in Oxelösund to fossil-free production.

The company’s Raahe mill in Finland, which currently has new most advanced equipment, will be the last of the company’s big plants to shift away from blast furnaces.

The steel industry currently produces 7 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, and shifting to hydrogen reduced steel and closing blast furnaces will reduce Sweden’s carbon emissions by 10 per cent and Finland’s by 7 per cent.

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