While David Wiggins was optimistic when his team set out to further improve the main bottle used for Molson Coors UK beers, he didn’t quite expect the resulting bottle to reduce overall packaging weight by 4,500 tons or a full 13% of annual shipped product weight since its debut in 2006.

Molson Coors partnered with two UK government-affiliated groups, the Waste Research Action Project (WRAP), and the Farraday Partnership, who provided needed access to expert resources as well as research funding.

The resulting bottle had a reduced diameter, smaller label size and significantly less glass content. The new diameter means that bottles fit perfectly onto incoming and outgoing shipping pallets, wasting no space. So, less glass and secondary packaging is being shipped into Molson Coors, less is going out with the product, and less is going into landfills after use. The decreased truck movements also mean reduced CO2 emissions.