Coca-Cola Introduces Cell-Based PET Bottles

The Coca-Cola company has introduced a new container called the "PlantBottle,'' made partially from sugar cane and molasses that can be recycled.

The "PlantBottle''is fully recyclable, has a lower reliance on a non-renewable resource, and reduces carbon emissions, compared with petroleum-based PET plastic bottles, the company said.

"The 'PlantBottle"' is a significant development in sustainable packaging innovation," said Muhtar Kent, chairman and CEO of the Coca-Cola Company. "It builds on our legacy of environmental ingenuity and sets the course for us to realize our vision to eventually introduce bottles made with materials that are 100 per cent recyclable and renewable."

Traditional PET bottles are made from petroleum, a non-renewable resource. The new bottle is made from a blend of petroleum-based materials and up to 30 percent plant-based materials.

The "PlantBottle'' is currently made through an innovative process that turns sugar cane and molasses, a by-product of sugar production, into a key component for PET plastic. Coca-Cola is also exploring the use of other plant materials for future generations of the "PlantBottle."

Manufacturing the new plastic bottle is more environmentally efficient as well. A life-cycle analysis conducted by Imperial College London indicates the "PlantBottle" with 30 per cent plant-base material reduces carbon emissions by up to 25 per cent, compared with petroleum-based PET.

Another advantage to the "PlantBottle" is that, unlike other plant-based plastics, it can be processed through existing manufacturing and recycling facilities without contaminating traditional PET. Therefore, the material in the "PlantBottle" can be used, recycled and reused again and again.

Coca-Cola will market this eco-friendly "PlantBottle" with Dasani and sparkling brands in select markets in North America later this year and with vitaminwater in 2010.

The innovative bottles will be identified through on-package messages and in-store point of sale displays. Web-based communications will also highlight the bottles' environmental benefits.

"The 'PlantBottle' represents the next step in evolving our system toward the bottle of the future," said Scott Vitters, Director of Sustainable Packaging of The Coca-Cola company. "This innovation is a real win because it moves us closer to our vision of zero waste with a material that lessens our carbon footprint and is also recyclable."

"The Coca-Cola company is a company with the power to transform the marketplace, and the introduction of the "PlantBottle" is yet another great example of their leadership on environmental issues," said Carter Roberts, President and CEO of World Wildlife Fund, US. "We are pleased to be working with Coke to tackle sustainability issues and drive innovations like this through their supply chain, the broader industry and the world."

Earlier this year, Coca-Cola opened the world's largest plastic bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The plant will produce approximately 100 million pounds of recycled PET plastic for reuse each year, the equivalent of nearly 2 billion 20-ounce Coca-Cola bottles.

Intel to Release Ivy Bridge CPUs (Third Generation Core) on 8 April 2012

Intel is planning to release their Ivy Bridge desktop and notebook CPUs between the 1st and the 7th of April 2012. The launch line up will consist of Intel Core i7-3770K, i7-3770, i7-3770S, i7-3770T, i5- 3570K, i5-3550, i5-3550S, i5-3570T, i5-3450 and i5-3450S Processors; low-end dual-core Ivy Bridge CPUs will follow later or be re-badged Sandy Bridge. As with Sandy Bridge, unlocked chips will have 'K' suffix, whereas 'S' and 'T' will represent low-power alternatives. Ivy Bridge is expected to bring lower TDP, 10% improved performance and significantly better  DirectX 11 graphics to the table vs. Sandy Bridge and may provide a strong alternative to AMD's APU platforms.

Ivy Bridge is the code name used for the 22nm die shrink of the current Sandy Bridge chips and features basically the same architecture but with a few minor tweaks and improvements. This includes a new on-die GPU that will come with full DirectX 11 support as well as with 30% more EUs than Sandy Bridge, in order to offer up to 60% faster performance that current Core CPUs according to Intel. In addition, the processor cores have also received some minor tweaks as their AVX performance was slightly increased and Intel has updated the integrated PCI Express controller to the 3.0 standard.

Significant CPU releases also tend to coincide not only with new motherboard platforms - we expect to see Z77, Z75 and H77 at a minimum - but also new hardware. It seems likely that Nvidia will seek to release high performance cards in their new Kepler range on or just before Ivy Bridge's launch in order to take advantage of any spike in demand should it appear. AMD may also round out their range of 28nm GPUs at this time.