How it works

The flexible pouch represents the future of cold drinks vending and dispensing.

It brings all the benefits that consumers have previously enjoyed with PET bottles; it's easy to handle, easy to drink from and it's fully resealable. However, unlike the PET bottle it uses a fraction of the plastic and packs flat in the machine and when it is finished at takes up no volume at all.

Unlike a can the pouch can easily be resealed for convenient on-the-move consumption. It's even better than laminated cartons because it is made from materials which can easily be recycled.

The Pouchlink pouch is a laminate of PE and PET, the material that plastic bottles are made of. PET has excellent barrier properties and this forms the main inside layer. The pouch is printed on the outside of the PET material and then a further layer of PE material is bonded to the PET layer. The material is fully recyclable and can be used again for lots of other purposes. New materials being developed will also make it possible to make the pouch fully bio-degradable.

The patented Pouchlink spout - with its unique linkage capability - is then sealed into the pouch to form the finished printed pouch.

Ultimate flexibility

This system is extremely flexible and subject to volume, it can be almost any shape and size to suit your customers.

The shaped Pouchlink pouch holds around 300ml of finished drink and has a gusset in its base which opens up when filled to form a simple bottle shaped package which is easily held in the hand and easy to drink from. Furthermore it retains its shape until the consumer has finished with it and it can easily fit into car cup holders to provide all the convenience of cans and PET bottles.

The Green Drinks Company also produces a brick shaped pouch with gussets on both sides which holds a drink of up to 500ml while offering the same footprint as the shaped pouch.

The pouch is made with the spout already capped to maintain hygienic integrity and then linked into chains and rolled on to a disposable spool. This is then given a protective outer covering to further maintain perfect hygiene. The spool of pouches can be loaded into the Pouchlink machine in minutes and what's more, the Pouchlink machine can hold different shaped pouches in one machine. The machine is programmable to ensure that the right pouch is chosen for the right drink every time.