Ribena, the UK’s favourite juice brand, has unveiled a new design for its 100% bottle-to-bottle recyclable packaging featuring a reduced label size that saves 202 tonnes of plastic per year.
The new bottles, representing the most significant brand design update in the past decade, will be available from November. The smaller sleeve size reveal the clear plastic of the new bottle, which will make them more easily detected by existing UK recycling infrastructure.
In addition, every new Ribena bottle will feature a number of recycling messages embossed on its bottle, as well as featuring on the bottle label, to encourage consumers to recycle.
This packaging change has been made possible only after a two-year development programme and investment of £1.6M in new manufacturing equipment, as well as in research and design.
The Ribena brand is owned by the Japan-based beverage giant Suntory Group, a company that has committed to using only 100% sustainable plastic bottles by 2030 and further aims to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions across the entire value chain by 2050.
As Charlotte Flook, head of brand, Ribena, at Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I pointed out, 67% of shoppers say they have become more aware of the environmental impact of plastic packaging over the last 12 months.
“We want to continue to use the positive power of our iconic brand and our long history of leading the way in sustainability to encourage drinkers to recycle,” she added.
All Ribena Squash and Still Ribena 500ml bottles are made with 100% rPET and have always been recyclable. Over the years, the brand has also removed more and more plastic from the bottle’s design, with 527 tonnes of plastic taken out of circulation.
This year, Ribena also became the first major UK juice drink brand to introduce a paper straw to its drinks cartons.