Smart Bottles Reduce Glass Breakage

By Claire Swedberg, RFID Journal

With an eye on reducing glass waste and decreasing the amount of fuel consumed to transport glass products, British nonprofit organization Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has developed a program intended to encourage glass bottle manufacturers, as well as food and beverage companies, to lighten the load.

WRAP's efforts have spurred the U.K. glass industry to produce new, lighter-weight glass bottles for holding everything from wine to coffee. But the manufacturing, bottling and transportation processes were designed for heavier, sturdier receptacles, and are not always appropriate for this new, more sustainable design. With lighter glass, the risk of breakage increases in factories at which bottles are made, as well as in the plants where beverages are bottled, and in the trucks that transport those containers, whether empty or filled.

Used with permission from RFID Journal, Inc.