Emmi and Coop selling dairy products in PET bottles
Lucerne - Some milk and cream products under Coop’s own brands and the Lucerne-based dairy processing firm Emmi are now available in white PET bottles. At present, these are the only plastic packaging for food in Switzerland that is recycled as part of a closed cycle.
From January 30, 2024, the own-brand dairy products at Coop as well as those from the dairy processing firm Emmi will be available on supermarket shelves in more environmentally friendly PET bottles. At present, this is the only plastic food packaging in Switzerland to be recycled and reprocessed as part of a closed cycle, in which new PET bottles are subsequently produced from the material and used again for milk and dairy products. The bottles can be returned to all PET collection points throughout Switzerland.
According to a joint press release issued by the two companies, milk and cream from Coop, as well as Emmi brands including Emmi Energy Milk High Protein and the Comella Choco Drink, have all been switched to this type of packaging. It is expected that UHT milk under Coop’s own organic brand Naturaplan will be available in these bottles from April onwards.
Compared with the previous bottles made from polyethylene, transportation and in future material usage as well can be significantly reduced, as the press release explains. According to a Carbotech study, the aim is to achieve a CO2 reduction of around 25 percent.
For both Coop and Emmi, these measures come as part of a strategy to increasingly save on packaging material. According to the information available, Coop has already reduced this volume by 36,000 tons since 2012, while Emmi is striving to make its packaging 100 percent recyclable by 2027 at the latest.
