Vitamin-enhanced water gets super-light bottle

There's a good way to remember the name of TalkingRain Beverage Co.'s new sustainable, 20-oz stock, hot-fill bottle PET from Graham Packaging Co., L.P. (www.grahampackaging.com). Just say, “Gee, it's light.” Indeed, it not only is light, it's called the “G-Lite™” bottle. Doug MacLean, CEO of Preston, WA-based TalkingRain, will certainly tell you about light. TalkingRain is moving to the G-Lite™ bottle for the vitamin-enhanced flavored waters it produces as a cobrand with one of its major customers. MacLean says the reduction in plastic resin used in the bottle equates to a cost reduction of nearly 5 percent, which he called a “meaningful savings.” This equates to 250 lb per truckload in weight savings, The bottle is also recyclable. MacLean says, but the switch to the new bottle is part of the commitment to sustainability that both Talking Rain and Graham Packaging are vigorously pursuing. “We're looking at every avenue we can to cut down on the packaging we use,” MacLean explains. “We have been very pleased that Graham Packaging is taking a proactive stance on reducing packaging and improving sustainability. This especially helps with customers of ours like Costco that have deep-seated environmental goals.” Until now, plastic bottles used in hot-filling had to have a substantial amount of material in their base to stand up to the rigors of the process. Graham spent two years developing the new bottle using a proprietary technique called HOB (Highly Oriented Base), which increases crystallinity in the plastic at the molecular level.