Johnnie Walker is introducing a 100% plastic-free bottle made of paper starting next year.

The paper-based bottles will only be available in one size and variant of the whiskey, according to a Johnnie Walker spokesperson.

This comes as Diageo, the makers of Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, and Guinness, announced on Monday that it was launching a new partnership with Pilot Lite, a venture management company, to launch Pulpex Limited, a new sustainable-packaging company.

"We're proud to have created this world first," Diageo's chief sustainability officer, Ewan Andrew, said in a press release. "We are constantly striving to push the boundaries within sustainable packaging and this bottle has the potential to be truly ground-breaking."

The new bottle will be made from sustainably sourced pulp to meet food-safe standards and will be fully recyclable. Per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an American scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce, scientists predict that nearly 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean each year.

95% of Diageo's packaging is in glass, according to a company spokesperson, and the limited-run bottle will be used to explore potential options in the future to supplement glass and occasionally replace its usage.

"We're thrilled to be working with global brand leaders in this consortium," Pilot Lite's director, Sandy Westwater, said. "By working together, we can use the collective power of the brands to help minimise the environmental footprint of packaging by changing manufacturing and consumer behaviours."

Introduced in the 1800s, the Johnnie Walker brand was introduced by Scottish grocer John Walker and is the most widely distributed brand of blended Scotch whisky across the globe, with Diageo seeing a 9% increase in North American sales of the brand in fiscal year 2019.

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