Innovative barrier technology for PET wine bottles

Rethinking the protective function

Wine is sensitive to external influences. Even small amounts of oxygen, light or moisture can alter its taste and quality. Glass has long been a reliable form of protection, but it has a disadvantage in terms of sustainability. The material is heavy, causes high CO₂ emissions during production and requires an enormous amount of energy for transport. ALPLA's first PET wine bottle already offered a resource-saving alternative and was developed and launched specifically for wines with a short shelf life. With its further developed PET wine bottle, ALPLA is demonstrating that this approach can be expanded even further: innovative barrier technology protects the wine even better and extends its shelf life, combining product protection and resource conservation without compromising on quality.

The core of the innovation is a ultra-thin silicon oxide layer, specially adapted to the product requirements, which is applied to the inside of the bottle. It is created in a plasma-assisted coating process in which gaseous silicon oxide is deposited as an invisible, glass-like layer on the inside wall of the PET bottle. This barrier, which is only a few nanometres thick, prevents the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide and thus protects the aroma and quality of the wine without impairing the quality of the material in the recycling process. This means that the bottle remains fully recyclable and also provides the necessary barrier effect to safely bottle even flavour-sensitive wines and preserve them for longer.

Cooperation is key

The advanced bottle was developed in collaboration with the Rhine-Hessian start-up weinton | WNTN in Germany. The young company uses the technology for its wines, which will be available in stores throughout Germany. The bottle weighs only around 50 grams and thus saves up to 49 per cent CO₂ over its entire life cycle compared to a conventional glass bottle weighing around 450 grams. Thanks to the combination of recycled rPET and the wafer-thin silicon oxide barrier, the wine remains just as protected as in glass while using significantly less material. For this successful approach, weinton | WNTN was recently named the winner of the Newcomer Lab at the Retail Congress Germany 2025.

The collaboration shows how established material expertise and new market impulses can complement each other: ALPLA contributes packaging expertise, while weinton | WNTN contributes market understanding and access to new target groups. "We have the best closed-loop system in the world in this country. It's time for the wine trade to become part of it," says Jörg Krick, co-founder of weinton | WNTN.

Recyclable, depositable, recyclable

The deposit system also plays a role in the further development. The new bottle is DPG-certified and can be returned to all standard deposit machines throughout Germany. This makes wine part of the established German deposit system for the first time. The material is returned to the cycle and is once again available for the production of high-quality packaging. An important step on the way to a functioning plastics recycling economy.

The new PET wine bottle is an example of a development that is affecting many industries: the shift towards packaged products with a lower environmental impact without compromising on functionality. "Modern barriers that are specially adapted to the filling goods, such as this silicon oxide layer, significantly expand the possible uses of PET, an outstandingly recyclable material. This flagship project is part of our glass-to-plastic strategy, which helps our customers to significantly improve the footprint of their products," says Immo Sander, Head of Business Development DE-BE-NL.