Snapple’s Evolution Into Sustainable Design
Snapple’s glass bottles became iconic to American culture in the 1990s – shaking your Snapple then twisting the metal cap to get the signature “pop!” was everywhere. Since then, the Snapple brand has gone through a massive makeover, with the evolution of sustainability in mind. We first started by evaluating the design of our bottles and looking for areas where we could reduce the weight and the amount of material we were using. Two years ago, we switched from glass to plastic bottles. This reduced our bottle weights by 80% and significantly lessened the brand’s overall environmental impact. The bottle was lighter and could fit more on a truck when we shipped our products out, reducing the need for 8,500 trucks annually. This meant a huge savings in the carbon footprint associated with getting our Snapple bottles into the hands of their biggest fans.
Last year we took the evolution of Snapple to the next level and reduced the amount of plastic even more by moving to a modern design, including a fully recyclable bottle made from 100% recycled PET, along with a plastic cap that can be recycled alongside the bottle. While Snapple’s iconic “pop!” may go away, the entire package – bottle, cap and label – can now be recycled together, and the used bottle and its components can then be made into new bottles again.
We know that driving demand for recycled plastics by increasing our use of post-consumer recycled (PCR) content is critical to supporting the broader circular economy, as is reducing our use of virgin plastic and our own carbon footprint. Because of this, we saw an opportunity to undergo a holistic brand makeover to transform Snapple with sustainability in mind. We had already started by reducing its weight and ensuring the entire bottle could be recycled, and now we moved on to being more resourceful with our materials. In 2020, we announced that the brand is transitioning to 100% recycled PET (rPET) plastic bottles, eliminating the need to create 600 million new plastic bottles every year. Moving from virgin or new plastic to recycled plastic reduces the emissions associated with making and shipping our products by 30%.
New Snapple labels will feature recycling graphics and point consumers to a dedicated microsite to learn about Snapple’s sustainability efforts.