The proposed legislation has created a new growth opportunity for single-serve bottles. The new polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle will help water makers meet the expected spurt indemand.
Under the law all bars and restaurants would be able to serve only bottled beverages. They will no longer be able to serve glasses of mineral water, for example. The legislation is expected to bepassed in Italy in the coming months.
It could potentially adopted throughout much of Europe as regulators respond to growing food and beverage purity and security concerns.
Canada-based Husky Injection Molding Systems, bottle manufacturer PET Engineering, and closure molder Corvaglia say they have developed a lighter, more cost-effective single-serve PET bottle inresponse.
"While this legislation has created a new growth opportunity for single-serve bottles, currently available in Italy in sizes such as 250 mL and 330 mL, it has required a new, more efficientapproach to making preforms for these bottles," the companies stated.
Previously PET bottles in the smaller size have not been in great demand. As a result, bottle makers have produced them using preforms in the 16 to 20 grams range normally used for 0.5 L bottles.
PET Engineering found that the approach leads to a lot of waste in resources and costs. The Italy-based company set out to re-engineer the single-serve beverage preform and container.
To do so, it drew on its own bottle and preform design strengths, Husky's expertise in hot runners, mold making and preform production and Swiss-based Corvaglia's experience in caps andclosures manufacturing.
The first of several new containers from PET Engineering is a 200 mL bottle for carbonated drinks dubbed the monodose bottle. It uses a 10 gram preform.
The technology is being initially offered to drinks producers serving the Italian market, but will be available across Europe if other European countries pass similar legislation.
"These lighter and smaller preforms have two main purposes," stated Moreno Barel, PET Engineering's president. "One is to optimize the existing 250 mL and 330 mL bottles on themarket. The other is to expand the range of bottle sizes, extending it to a wider market for new single-use beverages such as wine, juice and coolers."