Originally published 2020-05-30.
The "paper bottle" backed by Carlsberg, Coca-Cola, The Absolut Company and L'Oréal is real, but it is still a work in progress rather than a switch that has already happened. It is made by Paboco, the Paper Bottle Company, and combines a moulded shell of wood fibre with a thin inner barrier. In early versions that barrier was plastic; Carlsberg's version used PEF, a polyester made from plant-based raw materials. The brands have run trials, not replaced their bottles: Coca-Cola tested 2,000 paper bottles in Hungary in 2021, and Carlsberg put 8,000 of its Fibre Bottles in consumers' hands in 2022.
This guide explains how the bottle is built, what each company has tested, and what words like plant-based, recyclable and biodegradable really mean on packaging.
Who is behind the paper bottle
Paboco is a Danish company supported by two packaging heavyweights: the Swedish paper and board maker BillerudKorsnäs (now Billerud) and the Austrian plastic packaging firm ALPLA. The idea grew out of paper research that began in the 2010s, and the company works with large brands that test the bottle in real products. Coca-Cola's announcement in 2021 named Carlsberg, L'Oréal and The Absolut Company as fellow participants.
The appeal is easy to see. A bottle made mostly from renewable fibre could cut the amount of fossil-based plastic in each container, and fibre shells can be shaped and printed in ways glass and cans cannot.
How the bottle is made
A paper bottle cannot simply be paper. Paper soaks up liquid, lets gases through and loses strength when wet, so drinks, especially fizzy ones, need a barrier. Paboco's design has three main parts:
- The shell: moulded from wood fibre. Paboco says its current Pine 250 ml bottle uses FSC-certified fibre and a paper threaded neck.
- The barrier: a thin lining that keeps the drink in and oxygen and carbon dioxide where they belong. Early prototypes used conventional plastic, including recycled PET.
- The cap: still usually plastic. Developing a fibre-based cap has been one of the harder steps.
What PEF is
PEF (polyethylene furanoate) is a polyester chemically related to the PET used in most drinks bottles. It is made from ethylene glycol and FDCA, a building block that the Dutch company Avantium produces from plant sugars. PEF blocks oxygen, carbon dioxide and water vapour better than PET, which makes it attractive for drinks. A life-cycle study cited on Wikipedia found that bio-based PEF could significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions compared with PET. It is still a plastic, though, and that matters when we talk about where it ends up.
What Carlsberg, Coca-Cola and others tested
Carlsberg has worked on its fibre bottle since 2015. On its Green Fibre Bottle page the brewer describes the goal as a bottle that is "100% bio-based and fully recyclable," made from sustainably sourced wood fibres.
In June 2022 Carlsberg ran its largest trial, sampling 8,000 Fibre Bottles at festivals, events and tastings in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, Poland, Germany and France. Paboco made the wood-fibre shell, and Avantium supplied the plant-based PEF lining. Carlsberg said the fibre shell keeps beer cold longer than cans or glass, that the PEF can go through plastic recycling streams, and that it was still working with partners on fibre-based caps and a further version of the bottle.
Coca-Cola's trial came first. In the second quarter of 2021 it sold 2,000 bottles of AdeZ, a 250 ml plant-based drink, through the Hungarian online grocer kifli.hu. That prototype had a paper shell with a recyclable plastic lining and a plastic cap. Coca-Cola said its long-term aim was a bottle without the plastic liner that could be recycled as paper, and one of its packaging managers was frank: "This is new technology and we are moving in uncharted territory."
Paboco's own technical director at the time, Christina Carlsen, described the project's meaning for her team: "What we are doing is not just a new bottle, we are making a difference." Paboco now says it has moved into full-scale production of its Pine bottle.
Plant-based, recyclable, biodegradable: not the same thing
Packaging news often blurs three different claims. Keeping them apart helps you judge any new product.
- Plant-based or bio-based describes where the raw material comes from. A plant-based plastic can be chemically similar to a fossil one and last just as long.
- Recyclable means a material can be recycled in principle. In practice it depends on whether local collection and sorting systems accept it. A bottle that mixes fibre and plastic needs those layers to separate.
- Biodegradable means microbes can break a material down, but the speed depends heavily on heat, moisture and setting. Industrial composting, a garden compost heap and cold sea water give very different results.
Some early coverage of these bottles said they would break down within a year. None of the company statements we checked made that promise for the whole bottle. Carlsberg says its PEF lining can degrade in nature, without giving a timescale, but no bottle should be treated as safe to throw away outdoors.
Why the plastic problem drives this work
The concern is well founded. A widely cited 2015 study by Jenna Jambeck and colleagues estimated that 4.8 to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic entered the oceans from coastal countries in 2010. The often-quoted "8 million tonnes a year" sits in the middle of that range. Ingested plastic can block animals' digestive tracts, discarded fishing gear entangles wildlife, and sunlight breaks larger pieces into microplastics that persist for a very long time.
Single-use drinks bottles are only one part of that picture, but they are highly visible and made in huge numbers, which is why brands are under pressure to change them.
What you can do while packaging changes
- Reuse and refill first. A refillable bottle avoids the question of disposal altogether.
- Read disposal instructions on the label and follow your local recycling rules rather than assumptions.
- Use deposit-return schemes where they exist; they collect bottles far more reliably than ordinary bins.
- Treat "plant-based" as a starting point, not a verdict. Ask what the whole container is made of and where it is meant to go after use.
Paper bottles are a promising piece of the puzzle. Whether they become common will depend on caps, liners and recycling systems catching up with the idea.
Sources: Packaging Gateway: Carlsberg to trial bio-based beer bottle (June 2022); Coca-Cola Europe: paper bottle prototype to trial in Hungary (February 2021); Carlsberg: Green Fibre Bottle; Paboco; Wikipedia: Polyethylene furanoate (PEF); Wikipedia: Marine plastic pollution. Related: compostable bags at Aldi Ireland and a biodegradable plastic made from shrimp shells.
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