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The Sustainable Bottling Co has launched a new 8,000-square-foot aluminium bottling facility near Leicester, UK. The site was constructed following a £1 million investment secured by Melvin Jay, the founder of The Sustainable Bottling Co and soda brand Gunna Drinks. According to the company, the facility is the first in the UK and Europe equipped to bottle drinks in aluminium beyond water. It will produce Gunna lemonades and also provide white-label aluminium bottling to the drinks industry. The company said that it will not only provide 470ml aluminium bottles, the same packaging used by Gunna Drinks, but will also have the capacity to manufacture bottles ranging from 330ml to 750ml. The Sustainable Bottling Co explained that choosing an aluminium bottle over the standard 330ml can, commonly used for packaging many soft drinks, brings exciting possibilities as it can accommodate more liquid and mimics the footprint of a plastic bottle on the shelf. This facilitates a "seamless" transition in terms of size and stock capacity, contributing to the industry's shift away from plastic. Melvin Jay said: “From both a personal and professional perspective, I’m a passionate advocate of sustainability, and it’s something that’s been at the heart of the Gunna Drinks brand for the last six years. So, it’s incredibly exciting to be launching The Sustainable Bottling Co and be able to offer the industry access to significantly more planet-friendly bottling." "We believe aluminium bottles are the future. We’ve put significant investment in place to bring this vision to life, and we know that sustainable packaging is something that brands, retailers and shoppers are all actively looking for. There are far-reaching needs across the FMCG industry for aluminium bottling, and we can’t wait to start fulfilling these and helping to reduce the drinks sector’s reliance on harmful single-use plastic bottles. The potential environmental ramifications here are huge, and we’re excited to be able to make responsibly sourced and sustainable packaging more accessible.”