It was promised in 2021. Disappeared without trace in 2022. Almost made it into the world in 2023. But finally it is here: a paper-based bottle for Johnnie Walker whisky.
Made from 90% paper and a “very thin plastic liner”, the funky-looking packaging arrived at the Johnnie Walker Princes Street’s 1820 bar, in Edinburgh, this week. It is not the same one promised in 2020 (that one is still being developed with Pulpex). This one, for the Black Label whisky, has been designed with help from PA Consulting (as part of the Bottle Collective with PulPac).
The trial involves just 250 bottles (but still attracted a lot of press – guilty as charged). An initial life cycle assessment (LCA) shows the new bottles could potentially reduce carbon emissions by up to 47% compared to the traditional glass bottle. Diageo wants to “assess how bartenders interact with and pour from the bottle, and how the bottle fares in a bar environment”.
“We will conduct further external LCAs following this trial and savings will be confirmed as we continue to test, learn, iterate and refine the technology, post the trial and prior to scaled versions,” a spokeswoman tells us. During the trial period all 250 of the paper-based bottles and stoppers “will be collected and retained by Diageo for test purposes, ensuring appropriate end of life and recycling protocols”, she adds.
News of the bottle’s arrival had some kicking off on social media. There were concerns over the continued substitution of glass and plastic to paper-based containers for drinks, which can be hard to recycle. There are also sizeable question marks over paper sourced from sustainable forests (that they lack biodiversity for example).
Tim Etherington-Judge, from Avallen Spirits and the consultancy Avallen Solutions, offered a pragmatic view. He said: “It’s great to see true innovation in the drinks packaging, something long overdue as we’ve been exclusively using single-use glass bottles for about 150 years now. This [Johnnie Walker Black Label] bottle represents a step forward towards lower impact single-use bottles with [fewer greenhouse gas] emissions, less water usage, and zero sand mined to make it (something no one talks about with glass).”
And then added: “Is Princes Street the right place to trial it or use this bottle? Absolutely not. We use the Frugalpac paper bottle at Avallen Spirits and while we do sell a few to bars for batching cocktails, its best use is very much for retail and at home consumption. Johnnie Walker could easily install circular systems in the bars at Princes Street, a far more sustainable solution, [and] within the PGI rules of Scotch.”
Speaking at the Foodnavigator Climate Smart Food digital summit this week, Diageo global sustainability and innovation director, Dave Lütkenhaus, offered a run through of Diageo’s packaging innovation – which included refill trials for the on trade in 18 markets. In a partnership with Ecospirits, brands like Smirnoff and Gordon’s are being sent to bars, restaurants and hotels in 4.5 litre Ecotote bags that can be cleaned and reused up to 120 times. That could save 1,000 glass bottles.
Diageo has also been trialling the “world’s lightest glass whisky bottle” with its Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ultra. The spokeswoman declined to compare the super-light glass and the paper bottle because “these projects have different objectives”. Whether Diageo can really scale any of this remains to be seen: “Any successful innovation you need to be able to scale,” said Lütkenhaus. However, looking at its 2024 ESG reporting index, something has to give pretty soon: of its 5.57mTCO2e in scope 3, some 1.7mTCO2e (31%) are from packaging.
One of our other news items this week is also focused on drinks, with news of a Brexit boost for low-alcohol beer. We also report on (more) evidence showing the role of menu design in reducing the GHG emissions from meal choices made on food delivery apps. And finally, Kate Cawley, from the Future Food Movement, looks at food system transformation and asks whether you are a ‘ditherer’ or a ‘doer’.
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