One of the current tendencies is the consumer demand to return to the essence, the craftmanship, and the imperfect beauty. To respond to this demand, Estal, a leading premium packaging company, presents their new contemporary‐vintage design, Wildly Crafted.

Wildly Crafted is a new type of design made for manufacturers that embrace an artisan spirit. The philosophy of this new brand is the production of small batches, but Estal can also produce large amounts. The collection Wildly Crafted is easily recognizable, generated in a brand of identity and community within distilleries that use them: their bottles are unique because they are sealed and contain a texture that can be labeled and varied, like an orange peel, bubbles, movements of glass and imperfections – which present a handcrafted look. All of this can be added to their respect for sustainability.

The Wildly Crafted bottles can be fabricated with the option of 100 % recycled glass PCR (Post‐ Consumer Recycled Glass) that comes from gathering in municipalities. The use of this recycled glass permits the reduction of energy consumption and diminishes CO2 emission, since less fuel consumption is required when melting this material than by converting the raw material into glass. It also involves a lower total extraction of virgin materials, because 1 kg of recovered glass equals 1.2 kg of raw materials.

The Wildly Crafted bottle catalog features five distinct shapes: Primal, the toughest and most powerful design, sculpted in stone; Natural, with a look reminiscent of the ancient terracotta amphorae and the beauty that leaves the passage of time in the glass; Brave, which reinterprets the bottles of whiskey but with a bold design and a texture with bumps; Bobber, cylindrical and powerful, as well as mechanical and natural and finally, Bobber Jr., a tribute to the artisan brewers.

To this diversity of shapes, the possibility of choosing between two different mouths is added: Bocachata, with a clear and clean finish, providing a handmade bottle appearance and a contemporary look thanks to the purity of its lines and Choker, which presents a small space just below the neck, which corresponds to the mold separation line and allows the bottle to be moved across the production line.

The new Wild Glass color is the perfect complement to the Wildly Crafted bottle series, as it starts from the same concept of respect for sustainability and natural beauty. Applicable to both wine bottles, distillery and beverages in general, as well as gourmet and beauty sector, Wild Glass is obtained with 100 % PCR recycled white glass and is an efficient solution, since its application does not discard bottles with cosmetic imperfections of aesthetic character, thus reducing the environmental impact caused by discards. The color range of the “Colour is life” series, to which Wild Glass belongs, is also expanded with the introduction of Amber and Black tones, which stand out for their extreme elegance and wide application, being very attractive for distillery.

The environmental benefits of SIGNATURE PACK from SIG have been confirmed by a critically reviewed ISO-conformant lifecycle assessment (LCA) – the world’s first for a mass balance product.

The SIGNATURE PACK from SIG is the world’s first aseptic carton pack linked to 100 % plant-based renewable materials. The LCA showed significant reductions in environmental impacts across all 10 categories as a result of the substitution of fossil-based polymers with mass balance plant-based polymers made from tall oil (a by-product of paper manufacturing).

The carbon footprint of SIGNATURE PACK is – on average across Europe – 66 % lower than the carbon footprint of a standard SIG 1-litre carton pack of the same format across its lifecycle, based on the Europe-wide LCA.

World’s first ISO-conformant LCA for a mass balance product

The polymers in SIGNATURE PACK are 100 % linked to plant-based material via a mass balance system, whereby plant-based raw materials are mixed in with conventional fossil raw materials to produce the polymers. The amount of plant-based material included in the mix is equivalent to the amount needed for the polymers used in SIGNATURE PACK and the totals are balanced through recognised and audited certification schemes to ensure strict traceability and accountability.

The SIGNATURE PACK LCA is the first ISO-conformant LCA to take into account the inclusion of materials via a mass balance system. LCAs are traditionally based on the physical contents of a product and the environmental impacts associated with each stage of its production.

The independent, critically reviewed LCA of SIGNATURE PACK was conducted in accordance with recognised international standards, ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 by the Institut für Energie und Umweltforschung (IFEU/Institute for Energy and Environmental Research) in Germany.

IFEU agreed to conduct the LCA when it became clear how valuable SIG’s mass balance approach could be in making mainstream polymer production more sustainable.

Driving more sustainable plastics

SIG chose a mass balance approach because it supports a wider transition from fossil to bio-based raw materials within the conventional and highly efficient polymer industry, instead of using niche small scale producers with a limited number of plastic grades.

The polymers are supplied by plastic producers, Sabic and BASF, using plant-based renewable material from European wood sources. Tall oil was selected as the feedstock because, as a by-product of paper production, it is a waste material rather than an agricultural crop that requires land and resources to grow.