• Geocell earns recognition for innovative sandbag replacement September 03, 2010
• Mexico molders too dependent on used machines September 03, 2010
• PolyOne will start grading suppliers this year September 03, 2010
• American Compounding moving to larger location September 03, 2010
• Indiana opts out of JM Eagle whistle-blower lawsuit September 03, 2010

• After tripling in size, Alpha changes hands August 31, 2010
• For third straight year, California legislature rejects plastic bag ban September 01, 2010
• Jatco opening East Coast plant August 30, 2010
• Court approves $1 billion payout for Magna's Stronach August 31, 2010
• Compounder Ovation Polymers adding fourth twin-screw line August 31, 2010

• After tripling in size, Alpha changes hands August 31, 2010
• Compounder Ovation Polymers adding fourth twin-screw line August 31, 2010
• Jatco opening East Coast plant August 30, 2010
• US degradable plastics demand to grow 16.6 percent annually August 31, 2010
• Atrium planning vinyl extrusion plant September 01, 2010

Amcor PET Packaging recently unveiled its Arches bottle designs. (Amcor PET Packaging photo)

The designs — all of which will be commercially available by mid-2011 — are innovative while also providing cost savings for customers, custom beverage business development director Jeff DeLiberty said at the Packaging Conference in Las Vegas.

“These new types of custom packages try to maximize and push the limits of PET,” DeLiberty said.

Included among the new designs are:

* Arches, with bottles that use pillars and arches in their design. They can offer 22 percent total resin savings on 96-ounce bottles and 19 percent total resin savings on 64-ounce bottles.

* Active Hinge, a design using vertical and horizontal grooves, offering 2 percent resin savings on a 46-ounce bottle.

* CoFlex, producing a 20-ounce bottle using only 22 grams of PET, for resin savings of 42 percent.

Beyond 2011, Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Amcor PET is looking at designs such as Origami — with designs that resemble the Japanese art of paper folding — and Flat Fold, which can be crushed easily when emptied.

“Getting to lighter weights seems to be all the rage,” DeLiberty said. “If you don’t provide lightweight solutions, you’re going to fall through. We want to give marketers the most sustainable options in the marketplace today.”

“We have to maintain performance while using less resin, and maximize what customers are looking for,” he said.

Amcor also has taken public perception of lighter bottles into account when strategizing.

“A customer might not like the feel of the bottle, but when they’re told it uses less plastics and consumes less natural resources, they change their attitude,” DeLiberty said. “Brand owners owe it to themselves to tell people what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.”

Amcor PET is a unit of Amcor Ltd. of Melbourne, Australia. The firm ranks as North America’s second-largest blow molder with related annual sales estimated at $2 billion, according to a recent Plastics News ranking.