Britvic has announced that it is reducing the amount of packaging in its Robinsons squash brand with the introduction of a new lighter bottle.

The new 1 litre bottle is 2 grams lighter which will save an estimated 330 tonnes of plastic a year, equivalent to over 9 million empty bottles, and reduce the energy needed to make the bottles at the Robinsons factory in Norwich by 5%.

Over the past two years Britvic has invested more than £5 million in making changes to its Robinsons brand to reduce the weight of packaging used, saving 1600 tonnes of plastic overall.

The new 1 litre plastic bottle, made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), is another step towards Britvic’s target to remove a total of 5,000 tonnes of packaging by December 2010 as part of the government-backed Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP). Britvic was the first soft drinks company to sign up to WRAP which aims to design out packaging waste growth and deliver absolute reductions in packaging waste across the industry.

Paul Moody, chief executive of Britvic said: “Robinsons has come a long way in reducing its impact on the environment in the last two years but as always we are focused on further packaging reductions as well as energy and water usage reductions across all Britvic brands and at all our manufacturing sites.”

 “With Robinsons representing a quintessential family brand that sells over 200 million bottles a year, we are committed to playing our part in ensuring a sustainable future for further generations of families.”