Heinz Poured 185,000 Hours Into Perfecting A Bottle Cap That’s Fully Recyclable

Kraft Heinz is putting in the hours to ensure it does its part in helping keep the planet clean—185,000 of them, to be exact.
 
The food brand aims to reduce plastic consumption by issuing a new solution to save a billion plastic caps from heading to landfills.
 
To get there, the company spent 185,000 hours over eight years and cycled through 45 different versions which cost it US$1.2 million, before landing on the perfect redesign. 
 
Its previous version consisted of a silicone valve that was hard to recycle as companies had to separate it. A large part of Kraft Heinz’s goal was to form something familiar that could fit its bottles and that worked as well as the current caps.

Dozens of iterations later, Heinz landed on one that was 3D-printed in-house. Ultimately, it was found that polypropylene was the best material to create a cap capable of squeezing out that perfect dollop of ketchup yet is 100% recyclable.
 
Heinz says to Fast Company that its new design would work for other products, such as shampoos, and it hopes it can help other companies create an eco-friendly alternative to their packaging.

This isn’t the first time that Heinz has tried to solve the issue of excessive plastic use. Last year, it tested out the use of paper-based ketchup bottles that had one weakness: their caps were non-recyclable. Glad that’s solved now.

 
There has yet to be a set date for when you will find the new caps on your next bottle of Heinz, but they are expected to roll out in the UK sometime this year.
 
 
 
[via Good News Network and Fast Company, images via various sources]