Coca-Cola says it will pay a premium for bio-based materials for use in its PlantBottle beverage packaging, which contains about 30% of plant-derived materials. “For any new innovation you expect to have to pay more at first,” Shell Huang, Coca-Cola director/packaging research, tells CW. “We are willing to pay more in these initial stages.” Any related higher raw material costs will not be passed on to consumers, Huang adds. Technological advances, however, will eventually lead to parity between bio-based materials and petroleum-derived products, she says. The timing of price parity will depend on several factors including energy prices and the scale-up speed of the necessary technological developments....
This Week on CW: Indorama Ventures, a Thai chemicals concern, has announced plans to buy Old World Industries’ chemicals assets for $795 million. Old World operates the largest ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol plant in the U.S. The plant is in Clear Lake...