Not All Handles on PET Bottles Are Created Equally

handles-on-PET-bottles

Written by Brian Lynch

September 9, 2024

Everyone loves handles on big PET bottles. PET plastic is beautifully crystal clear and 100% recyclable. A strong, comfortable handle to make the pour easier on a heavy, large format PET bottle is the icing on the cake for consumers. This is especially true in food and beverage, household and chemical applications.

As handles on PET bottles are becoming more popular, we are often asked why the handles on BottleOne bottles are so special. It’s because not all handles on PET bottles are created equally. This is notably true when it comes to recycling. Let me explain.

For the sake of this article, let’s assume you have already made the decision to use PET plastic for your product. After all, the FDA only approved one recycled plastic to be used for food and beverage applications, and that’s PET. You can read more about this on the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s website.

A&C Plastics, Inc. sums it up well:

While many plastics are only FDA compliant and food safe in their virgin (or unrecycled) state, recycled PET is an FDA approved plastic for food contact. It also repels microorganisms and doesn’t corrode, making it an overall ideal material for food and beverage contact and storage.

3 Common Types of Handles on PET Bottles

There are several types of handles to choose from. In this article, we’ll review 3 popular ones.

SECONDARY HANDLES

Most secondary handles are separate handles that are added to the bottle after the bottle is created. Sometimes the handles are attached around the neck, and sometimes they are attached in the form of a clip or elastic band that is attached to the cap.

A few years ago, before integrating a PET handle into the PET bottle preform was possible, secondary handles were all the rage.

The problem with these handles is that they are usually made from a different type of resin than the bottle (many times HDPE), and they are typically a different color.

For this reason, these packages do not support single-stream recycling. In other words, they require sorting to separate the handle from the bottle before they can be properly recycled.

Unfortunately, many times the different resins are not sorted, and the fully-recyclable PET bottle ends up in the landfill with the handle still attached. If those bottles accidentally get into the recycle stream, they not only contaminate it, but they can also damage the equipment.

These handles cause other problems too. Recently, a recycling startup in Las Vegas had contamination from white handles on bottles being thrown into the recycling bin by the casinos and bars without removing the handles. The result was white streaks on the reprocessed bottles from the contaminated recycled PET.

Consumers don’t want to sort. They want to toss their bottle into the recycling bin without separating the pieces. With the focus on the environment and recycling, this type of handle is obviously not an ideal solution.

PINCH GRIP HANDLES

We’ve all seen the PET bottles with the indentions on the side. Those indentions are designed to help us hold the bottle. We “pinch” the indentions.

Although the pinch grip handle is blown with the rest of the bottle, it comes with its own problems. For one, the pinch handles themselves aren’t real handles that we slip our fingers into, so they don’t work well with large bottles.

Large bottles have always been the problem child. An 8-pound gallon of milk, juice, water or oil is hard to hold onto by just pinching a bottle. For smaller bottles, this type of handle works. But for large format bottles, again, this is not a feasible solution.

BLOW MOLDED PET HANDLES

What? PET bottles can be stretch blown? And with a handle? For a large format bottle? What kind of crazy science fiction is this? For years, people said it couldn’t be done, but it’s possible with BottleOne. You may have seen our bottles in your local stores.

BottleOne preforms are uniquely different. They have a handle molded into them. When the bottles are blown into shape, the handle becomes part of the bottle. So cool!

Since the handle on BottleOne bottles is incorporated into the preform, the bottles are fully recyclable from one bottle into another. Over and over. Endless times. BottleOne bottles are made to be recycled.

Consumers absolutely love the gallon size BottleOne bottles. You can read the stories on our blog.

NEW LAWS

According to The Association of Plastic Recyclers, recycled plastic content requirements are here, and more are coming soon. These new laws will ensure manufacturers use recycled content in their bottles.

This seems to be building a new market, and motivating the recycling industry to start providing more post-consumer recycled plastic options for manufacturers to use. With all this focus on recycling, manufacturers are more mindful than ever that their containers are easily recycled.

BottleOne is 100% PET, can be made with up to 50% PCR, and can be bottle-to-bottle recycled. BottleOne supports the circular economy.

OTHER OPTIONS

Are there other options to BottleOne? Yes, of course.

There are a couple different options for creating a large bottle with a handle made with a single resin (a single type of plastic). One option is the HDPE cloudy milk jug option, but remember, it cannot use PCR (post-consumer resin) for food and beverage applications.

There are also other PET clear options, although they are processed through extrusion blow methods. This makes them slow to manufacture, super thick, and expensive.

We wholeheartedly believe that BottleOne is the best solution by far if you’d like a handle on your large format PET bottle.

The handle on the BottleOne bottle adds to the bottle’s strength and durability. In addition, it runs on production speeds of 5,000 bottles per hour. The bottle is fast, strong and beautiful!

IT’S TIME FOR A CHANGE

If you work for a CPG company that uses a large format PET bottle (over 64oz.) as your primary package, and you currently add a handle of a different resin, it’s time to change to BottleOne. As you can see, not all handles on PET bottles are created equally. BottleOne is a clear difference!

Let us show you how BottleOne will help you reach your PCR goals

BottleOne is an affordable large capacity, standard grade PET bottle with an integrated PET handle. BottleOne is designed to dramatically impact your supply chain. Let us introduce you to BottleOne.

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1 Comment

  1. Andrew Wiseman

    As I get closer to becoming an ORF, (old, retired “folk” (?) Haha) I truly appreciate this innovative handle that is easy on my hands and wrists. If your brand wants to either keep or capture this crucial market demographic which holds the money, you should give Bottle One’s technology a serious look.

    On Aug 26, 2024 Statista Research published, “In the first quarter of 2024, 51.8 percent of the total wealth in the United States was owned by members of the baby boomer generation. In comparison, millennials own around 9.4 percent of total wealth in the U.S.”

    Congrats on Bottle One’s innovation that serves and solves issues for we Boomers!