By Lee Hae-rin
Korea will start producing skinny and light-weight plastic bottles for ingesting water for the primary time beginning subsequent Tuesday, in line with the Ministry of Setting, Thursday.
The brand new product would be the lightest bottle, weighing 9.4 grams per 500 milliliters, which is 2.2 grams lighter than the earlier model. This initiative is predicted to scale back plastic consumption for bottle manufacturing by 127 tons yearly, because it makes use of 20 to 30 p.c much less plastic in comparison with the earlier mannequin.
The benefit of utilizing skinny, light-weight plastic bottles is their ease of crushing, which may cut back area for disposal and transportation
The light-weight plastic bottle is straightforward to eliminate however susceptible to break throughout distribution. To deal with this, the nitrogen charging technique will probably be used for the primary time in Korea to make containers for potable spring water. This system, already widespread in different nations, enhances the bottle’s sturdiness and maintains water high quality.
On this technique, liquid nitrogen is injected into the plastic bottle, the place it vaporizes and expands to take care of inside stress, enhancing the bottle’s resistance. This nitrogen charging method has beforehand been utilized in Korea for drinks like espresso, drinks, and tea.
Whereas there aren’t any rules in Korea prohibiting using nitrogen charging for ingesting water bottles, the dearth of particular tips allowing its use has hindered its introduction within the business.
Within the first half of 2021, the Nationwide Institute of Environmental Analysis confirmed that nitrogen charging doesn’t have an effect on ingesting water high quality. Following this, the ministry initiated a pilot venture with Lotte Chilsung Beverage within the second half of this 12 months to supply nitrogen-charged ingesting water bottles.
The Ministry of Setting plans to check the distribution and sale of nitrogen-filled ingesting water and consider whether or not to label the product as nitrogen-charged .
“It is extremely significant that the corporate has voluntarily proposed cooperation and produced nitrogen-filled ingesting water bottle merchandise to scale back plastic use,” Lee Seung-hwan, a water use coverage officer on the ministry, stated. “The ministry will actively promote the development of the system to broaden using light-weight plastic bottles.”
