Based in the French outermost region of Mayotte, Mayco SA bottles fizzy soft drinks in plastic packaging. The project consists of reducing the weight of the bottles in order to lower costs and the impact on the environment.
Mayco SA: decreasing the weight of bottles to reduce environmental impact in Mayotte
- 07 August 2019
We have a responsibility to protect and improve our environment on a daily basis.
Mayco SA is a public limited company specialising in the manufacture of soft drinks. It is an independent company licensed from The Coca Cola Company. It has 126 employees and a single production line.
The company mainly produces beverages in polyethylene terephthalate packaging. Its goal is to reduce the weight of the bottles by modernising the bottle blowing tool. The objective is to reduce costs and environmental impact during manufacturing and transport by reducing the carbon footprint.
Added weight and savings in materials
The weight reduction was carried out in two phases. The first was to reduce the length of the screw thread and the height of the bottle cap. The weight savings is 1.3 g per bottle and 0.6 g per cap. The second phase was to reduce the weight in the bottle. The weight savings is 4 g for 2 l bottles and 3.86 g for 50 cl bottles. This represents a total gain, in all formats together, of about 12.5 t per year.
The short neck also saves on material, thereby reducing waste after consumption, since the amount of material used for pre-forms and bottles, as well as for their caps, is reduced.
A third important step
Finally, an energy savings of about 30% during the blowing stage further reduces the carbon footprint. The investment for these line modifications is significant. The energy savings is ensured, on the one hand, by reducing the quantities of plastics to be processed and, on the other, by reducing the pressure and/or temperature during blowing/moulding operations. This reduction translates into a reduction of 7.68 MWh corresponding to 6.85 t of CO2 per year.
In addition, by reducing the weight of the bottles and the resulting waste, this project has a significant impact on greenhouse gases. The weight savings achieved on bottles and caps is approximately 46 t per year, worked out on the basis of the volumes achieved in 2018.
Total investment and European funding
The "Mayco SA – Reduction of bottle weight and energy consumption" project has received a total investment of EUR 212 357; the European Regional Development Fund contributed EUR 138 032 under the “ERDF-FSE Mayotte operational programme" for the 2014-2020 programming period. The investment is part of the "Energy Union and Climate" priority.