Friesche Vlag coffee creamers in recycled PET bottle from now on

From now on, Friesche Vlag coffee creamers will be available in a more environment-friendly packaging. All single-use glass bottles of the entire coffee whitener line will be replaced with recycled PET bottles.* The Research & Development department of FrieslandCampina developed a ‘zipper’ for these PET bottles as well. With this the sleeve of the bottle can be easily removed and this makes recycling possible.

Patrick van Baal, Global Director Packaging Development at FrieslandCampina: “Replacing single-use glass, a material which we all have recycled for years already, with plastic may feel wrong. However, we know that the CO2 footprint and the use of fossil resources for our recycled PET bottles is significantly lower than the single-use glass bottles we used in the past. Besides, the recycled PET bottles are unbreakable, easy to open and they pour better. It is our ambition to become completely circular and to minimise our impact on the climate. With this introduction we take another nice step into the direction of our objective of using circular packaging with a minimum CO2 footprint.”
In the new Friesche Vlag portfolio the PET bottles will contain 140 ml, 300 ml and 500 ml. The carton packagings (455 ml and 929 ml) and the cups will remain.


(Inter)national partnerships

One of the objectives of the sustainability programme of FrieslandCampina Nourishing a better planet is to make better packaging that is 100% circular and CO₂-neutral and with this minimise the amount of packaging material. Therefore the company has laid down its objectives by means of international and national partnerships, such as the European and the Dutch Plastics Pact and the ‘New Plastics Economy’ in the ‘Global Commitment’ of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Do you want to know more about how FrieslandCampina is actually working on sustainable packaging for reduced emissions? Watch this animation video.

*The PET bottles of Goudband and Halvamel are made from 100% recycled material. The caps and the sleeves are not made from recycled material. The PET bottle (excluding caps and sleeves) of Balance consists of 89% recycled material. As Balance is a sensitive product, it is all the more important to make sure that no oxygen can enter the bottle. In order to establish this, we add a so-called extra ‘oxygen barrier’ to the bottle. This is why the bottle cannot be made from 100% recycled PET yet. We will keep working on improving this. All bottles are completely recyclable after the sleeves – which are not recyclable – have been removed and the caps have been put on again.

Qu0026amp;A

  • 1. Why do I have to remove the sleeve from the PET bottle?

    Removing the sleeve makes the sorting and recycling of the bottle much easier. After the bottle has been discarded, it goes to the sorting centre. The sorting centre sorts all different types of materials, such as cans, bottles and drink cartons, and prepares them for recycling together. The sorting is done by machines and when the sleeve is still on the bottle, the machine cannot ‘see’ the bottle underneath.

  • 2. Why do we not introduce a fully recyclable PET bottle?

    We feel that we have to take action now, so we make improvements as soon as we can. The entire bottle, except the sleeve, is recyclable now. We keep working on making all our packaging fully recyclable, every step counts.

  • 3. Why are the glass bottles not reused?

    The present glass bottles end up in the bottle bank. Then they are melted to make new glass bottles. The production of glass bottles requires high temperatures and therefore a lot of energy is used during this process. The impact of this becomes relatively smaller only after a bottle has been reused enough times (so when it does not end up in the glass bank). These glass bottles were not reused, for they have not been included in the deposit and reuse chain.