The “3 Circles” bottle, developed by Krones and its digital decoration subsidiary, Dekron, has been announced as one of the winners of the 2020 German Packaging Award in the category of sustainability.
This year’s winners of the annual competition were divided across ten different categories. According to the independent jury tasked with judging the entries, many submissions focussed on new solutions in the fields of sustainability and digitisation.
In fact, according to Bettina Horenburg, member of the executive board at the Institute, some 40% of the innovations submitted fell into the category of sustainability.
“This shows how important this fundamental topic is and remains, even through the current pandemic. The new digitisation competition category, which was held for the first time, also caught the imagination of the participants,” she said.
Designed for recycling, the 3 Circles bottle is made of 100% recycled PET and can in turn be fully recycled into new food packaging at the end of its useful life. The design uses digital direct printing technology, making a label unnecessary. All printing inks are dissolved in the recycling process, leaving no residues. Anticipating upcoming European legislation on cap design, the bottle comes with a tethered cap that remains firmly attached after opening.
The technologies used for the production, decoration and recycling of the bottle are standard and available from Krones and Dekron The recycled starting material, the specially designed preform, and the container and its decoration with environmentally friendly ink are all self-produced and offer a marketable, all-round concept for sustainable beverage packaging for commercial use in the beverage industry.