A Gloucestershire drinks manufacturer has got something to shout about and Punchline editor Mark Owen visited its factory to find out what all the fuss is about.

Suntory Beverage and Food GB&I (SBF GB&I), the makers of iconic British drinks brands Ribena and Lucozade, is the biggest company in the Forest of Dean, employing 330 people at its Coleford factory.

SBF GB&I has just confirmed that all of its on-the-go 500ml bottles (excluding the cap and label) will be made from 100 per cent recycled polyethylene tetraphyte (rPET) plastic by the end of the year. This includes Lucozade Sport, Lucozade Energy, Orangina and Ribena.

The company says this is a significant achievement in the face of current industry challenges to secure supply of food grade quality rPET.

Recycled plastic has on average a 79 per cent lower carbon footprint than virgin plastic and SBF GB&I estimates that this switch to rPET across its on-the-go bottles will see a reduction in 36,058 tonnes of CO2 from its purchased goods Scope 3 emissions.

Liz Nieboer, head of sustainability at Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I, said: "Our shift to 100 per cent rPET for our 500ml ready-to-drink bottles is a huge achievement, and an important step in our commitment to achieving 100 per cent sustainable packaging by 2030.

"It's the result of years of hard work and whilst reaching this milestone is a cause for celebration, much still needs to be done in terms of recycling infrastructure. There has been a historic under investment in the UK's recycling and collection infrastructures, meaning less than a third of bottles are turned back into bottles."

Jo Padwick, business transformation manager, told Punchline: "When you finish your bottle you put it in your recycling bin, that's really key, and we can grind it back down into flakes. We clean it, wash it and we can blow it back up into a bottle again.

"At the moment we tend to source rPET from Europe from deposit returns but there's more and more investment in the UK and there's more factories being built so we should be getting more supply from the UK."

Asked about the secret of the company's success, she said: "People absolutely adore these fantastic brands they've grown up with. They really welcome these packaging changes too and anything they can do in terms of buying bottles that are made of recycled plastic."

Liz Nieboer added: "I think we are all embracing the return to normality after the pandemic, we're getting out more, we're meeting with friends, and I think that we're very encouraged by the sales we're seeing. The weather helps as well.

"We account for seven per cent market share of the soft drinks market in the UK and we definitely think we're punching our weight in what we're doing in terms of sustainability."

"It's fair to say there's been an underinvestment in how products are collected and recycled over recent years but that is due to change with the introduction of a deposit return scheme so when you buy a bottle when you return it you will get some money back towards purchases in store.

"Wales is the third best recycling nation globally so we can all learn from Wales' fantastic work. I'm confident we will all do better and having the infrastructure and having the systems in place that will encourage us to recycle more will be a good thing, so we can use quality plastic again and again and again."

Only the highest quality plastic can be used to remake food and drink packaging, but it is estimated that Europe currently only produces around 1.3 million tonnes of food-grade rPET every year. For all soft drinks companies in Europe to produce bottles from 100 per cent rPET, this would need to increase by an estimated 3.56 million tonnes.

Lucozade Sport, Orangina and Ribena are already 100 per cent rPET, but further supply is needed to meet this for Lucozade Energy. To address industry shortages in the short term and ensure SBF GB&I meets the current requirement of 30 per cent rPET in its Lucozade Energy bottles, the company has invested in a 9,000 tonne PET resin which contains 30 per cent recycled material content processed by chemical recycling technology.

An alternative to mechanical methods, chemical recycling breaks down any PET plastic to its core elements allowing it to be reformed into new food-grade rPET, as though it was a virgin material once again. It is ideal for bottle to bottle recycling of PET when colour and purity needs to be improved compared to mechanical methods.

SBF GB&I believes that an industry-wide lack of food-grade quality rPET across Europe will slow other organisations from following its lead. That's why it is working with Government, industry and other partners to deliver a circular economy for plastics.

Ribena was the first UK soft drinks brand to make its bottles from 100 per cent rPET in 2007 and last year made further design changes to optimise bottle to bottle recycling by reducing the size of the bottle sleeve.

SBF GB&I also recently announced a new prototype PET bottle made from plant-based materials and has been working as part of the Carbios consortium on enzymatic recycling technology, further examples of how the business is continuing to innovate its packaging.

The latest shift is just the next step on SBF GB&I's ongoing journey to halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and achieving its 2050 net zero emissions ambition, as part of its Growing for Good vision. Since 2019, the business has decreased its carbon emissions by 24 per cent and GHG emissions by over 14 per cent.