DRINKS giant Lucozade Ribena Suntory (LRS) has shown its bottle by saving more than 40,000 tonnes of used plastic via recycling.

The firm, which employs more than 300 people at its Coleford factory, uses the plastic to produce its bottles, and was the first UK soft drinks company to use 100 per cent recycled material.

And after developing the procedure over the last decade, it is now aiming to make its packaging even more sustainable, with the launch this month of a new leightweight 500ml bottle for its bestselling Ribena drink, which will save another 325 tonnes a year.

LRS are also preparing to introduce 100 per cent recycled paperboard trays for the Ribena squash concentrate, which should save more than 400 tonnes a year.

Michelle Norman, LRS director of sustainability and external affairs, said.“We all have a role to play in reducing, reusing and recycling plastic, and LRS is on a mission to be as sustainable a business as possible.

“We are extremely proud that we’ve been reusing 100 per cent recycled plastic in our bottles for a decade and we are committed to continued innovation.”

In a bid to boost recycling rates for its Ribena cartons and straws, it has also linked up with Hubbub, the anti-litter scheme, to encourage customers to push their straws into their cartons before placing packaging in a recycling bin.

LRS shares Hubbub’s videos on its YouTube, Instagram and Twitter channels, and in one of the videos, vlogger Sarah Divall gives subscribers a tour of the Coleford factory, showing them how the company makes its packaging.

The firm subscribes to WRAP’s UK Plastic Pact, committing it to make unnecessary single-use plastic packaging “a thing of the past” by 2025. 

It aims to effectively recycle or compost 70 per cent of its plastic packaging and introduce a 30 per cent average of recycled content into its plastic packaging ranges.  The company also recently trialled edible drinks sachets made from seaweed at two sports events, to see how the public reacted, and has lowered its sugar levels in its popular drinks.

WRAP director Peter Maddox praised the firm’s “continued innovation” for packaging sustainability. 

Last year, the firm’s Coleford site featured in the BBC documentary Inside the Factory, with presenters Gregg Wallace and Cherry Healey, which lifted the lid on the Ribena process, from bush to bottle.