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Bangkok, Thailand & Vittorio Veneto, Italy – 25 May 2023 – Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited, one of the world’s leading sustainable chemical companies, and SIPA, a leading PET packaging technology specialist, have collaborated to bring the world’s first sustainable, monolayer PET sparkling wine bottle to market, celebrating International Wine Day.

The award-winning PET packaging solution for sparkling wine provides brands with a fully recyclable option that maximizes logistics efficiencies, minimizes handling risks, runs on existing glass-filling lines, and has a lower carbon footprint .

Developed and designed by SIPA’s Packaging Development Team and made from Indorama Venture’s original bottle resin and OxyClear® barrier, the patented bottle is an improved alternative to traditional glass bottles. Helping the European wine industry address a glass shortage due to supply chain, energy and raw material challenges. The average cost of a glass wine bottle increased 23 percent from April 2020 to April 2023 , and doubled in some European markets .

The new bottle was awarded top prize in the 2023 Best Packaging contest at Milan Design Week. It gives the same look, functionality and feeling of a traditional glass sparkling wine bottle. A key SIPA innovation is the design of the bottle neck to make it look like the glass version, allowing it to accept the classical mushroom-shaped cork with metal cage closure. The base also matches the original glass version, while the bottle has a top-load resistance of 350kg.

Marco Brusadin, Global Packaging Development Director at SIPA, said, “With this proud innovation for the market, our intention is for consumers to enjoy the same celebratory sparkling wine experience - from uncorking to pouring. And second, to support the industry overall as wine companies can make the change at no cost, as extensive tests have proven that PET bottles can run on filling lines designed for glass bottles. The collaboration with Indorama Ventures offers environmentally improved packaging, while allowing brands to stand out by taking a stance on sustainability and differentiating themselves at point of sale, with creative shapes, easy-to-design bottles and improved logistics.”

At just 90g, the new PET sparkling wine bottle is about 80 percent lighter than a traditional glass bottle and is almost unbreakable. The optimal weight allows up to 33 percent more bottles per truck, and its shatter-proof properties help improve mobility logistics. These advantages offer wine brands opportunities in new channels like e-commerce and on-board transport as well as new consumption occasions at festivals and events. Numerous tests of the barrier material conducted at the German Institute of Geisenheim showed that OxyClear® PET Wine bottles offer the same benefits and functionality of glass after 24 months in storage at 15 degrees.

The new PET bottle comes with strong sustainability credentials to match consumer demands. It is fully-recyclable in regular recycling streams, while PET on average emits less than half of the level of greenhouse gases (GHG) of glass bottles . This development is an important demonstration of how PET’s flexible, safe and lightweight properties are driving sustainable growth in packaging as the most recycled plastic in the world .

Marc Potemans, Business Head of Specialty Chemicals at Indorama Ventures, said, “Indorama Ventures’ advanced barrier resin delivers a monolayer PET sparkling wine bottle with many advantages. The excellent oxygen barrier gives a minimum shelf life of 24 months, and the packaging has glass-like clarity while protecting the sparkling wine’s taste, bouquet and, importantly, effervescence. The new bottle is fully recyclable in the standard clear PET stream. The SIPA and Indorama Ventures’ teams have developed this solution quickly and we can now support the full supply chain.”