The Draft Packaging List to be Prohibited, recently published by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, cannot contribute to the sustainability and growth of the domestic beverage sector. In fact, the opposite is true. The draft list identifies five packaging items that will be banned starting in 2024. Among them are translucent and opaque PET bottles used for food products in every color except blue, green, and brown.
The previous edition of the draft list also included exceptions for certain colors, including black. This leads to a central question: why push to ban black packaging when there are no clear problems with how such packaging is classified or recycled?
No problem
Once the plan is implemented, it is projected that around 470 million black PET bottle units will be used for soft drinks in 2024. That volume translates into a substantial stream of raw materials capable of sustaining roughly 11.3 processing lines each year.
Additionally, under TU 2298-014-01877509-00, which covers recycled polymer raw materials in an untreated state, black bottles sit within the same color group as brown PET bottles. Brown bottles are already listed as exceptions in the draft’s prohibition table.
Black bottles can be separated and recycled on their own, or processed together with brown bottles. The resulting recyclable material can feed many sectors. It can be used to manufacture products that do not demand high standards for transparency or color purity, including electrical insulation materials, polyester for building materials, drainage systems, automotive components, engineering structures, storage and transport containers, PET tapes, and polymer resins for polymer concrete, tiles, and more.
The case for banning black PET bottles has not received support from the scientific community. Research into the packaging list and its proposed ban has drawn attention from institutions such as Moscow State University and the Institute of Food Production, which have cited concerns about the policy’s economic rationale (Economic Policy; Yegor Gaidar).
There is a need
Domestic soft drink manufacturers rely on black PET bottles for bottling tonic beverages. This is not a whim but a technological requirement.
Black packaging offers stronger protection against ultraviolet rays than brown packaging, which is especially important for carbonated soft drinks and energy drinks that contain vitamins, caffeine, and other sensitive ingredients. The deeper shade effectively absorbs UV light, reducing transmission and helping to preserve product quality.
This protection matters for non-alcoholic carbonated and energy drinks, where maintaining the chemical balance and sensory properties throughout shelf life is crucial. In contrast, beer packaging typically relies on brown bottles, which already provide adequate protection.
Preserving the integrity of products like tonic beverages means limiting oxidation and preserving flavor, aroma, and mouthfeel. The black PET bottle helps achieve this in ways that lighter colors cannot, preventing degradation of delicate components and ensuring consistent consumer experience across the product line.
This view is supported by a study titled “Comprehensive assessment of the feasibility and socio-economic consequences of limiting the use of certain types of disposable polymer packaging,” carried out by ROSBIOTECH and partner facilities. The findings underscore the practical value of black PET in protecting sensitive formulations (ROSBIOTECH study).
Industry experts have warned that banning black bottles could deteriorate the functional properties of non-alcoholic energy drinks and erode organoleptic characteristics. That would force recipe revisions and shorten shelf life, driving up costs across the supply chain from raw materials, container and label manufacturers, to producers and distributors. This would ripple to the end consumer and could place a heavier burden on the state budget through lost VAT, estimated by industry insiders at billions in annual terms.
In this context, a strange tension emerges: raw material availability and processing capacity for black PET exist in abundance, and the industry clearly relies on black PET bottles. Yet the draft proposal moves to ban them. The lingering question remains: why persist with a ban when the sector demonstrates no material supply or processing constraints?