Melvin Jay, the founder of anti-plastic campaigning soda brand GUNNA Drinks, has launched a brand new aluminium bottling facility near Leicester on the back of a £1 million investment.
The 8,000 sq ft site is the second of it’s kind in Europe, and is the first with the capabilities to bottle drinks other than water. The plant will also bottle GUNNA’s own lemonades as well as offering white label aluminium bottling to the broader industry.
Launching as The Sustainable Bottling Co., this move has profound positive implications for the environment as aluminium is infinitely recyclable unlike it’s single use plastic counterpart – for which around 70% of soft drinks are currently bottled in. It’s estimated that an average of 35.8 million plastic bottles are used every day in the UK alone, with only 19.8 million of these being recycled.
The Sustainable Bottling Co. will have the capabilities to produce bottle from 330ml to 750ml including the 470ml aluminium bottles with GUNNA Drinks are packaged in.
Jay commented: “From both a personal and professional perspective, I’m a passionate advocate of sustainability and it’s something that’s been at the heart of the GUNNA Drinks brand for the last six years. So, it’s incredibly exciting to be launching The Sustainable Bottling Co. and be able to offer the industry access to significantly more planet-friendly bottling.”
“We believe aluminium bottles are the future. We’ve put significant investment in place to bring this vision to life, and we know that sustainable packaging is something that brands, retailers and shoppers are all actively looking for.”
“There are far-reaching needs across the FMCG industry for aluminium bottling and we can’t wait to start fulfilling these and helping to reduce the drinks sector’s reliance on harmful single use plastic bottles. The potential environmental ramifications here are huge and we’re excited to be able to make responsibly sourced and sustainable packaging more accessible.”
