In more recent times, a significant outdoor weekend event held in New York City introduced biodegradable water bottles (excluding plant-based caps) during the summer of 2018. This innovative approach was subsequently adopted by several major events across the USA. However, it soon became evident that achieving complete sustainability required a more comprehensive solution.
The key challenge lay in ensuring that not only the bottle but also the cap and label were crafted from plant-based plastics. This holistic approach was essential to enable proper processing in diverse “end-of-life” environments.
When a petroleum-based plastic cap was used, it necessitated two separate waste streams. The bottle composted effectively, but the cap and the ring around the bottle’s neck did not, thus remaining in the compost and polluting it with fossil plastic components.
Furthermore, the use of a fossil plastic cap posed issues during incineration. While our biodegradable bottles, when burned, emitted no harmful substances, the same couldn’t be said for fossil plastic caps. They resulted in the release of toxic smoke and residue.
Even recycling was affected, as the PLA (Polylactic Acid) recycling stream would become contaminated if the tamper-evident band was made from petroleum-based materials.
Recognizing these challenges, we embarked on a mission to develop a 100% plant-based compostable cap. This journey was marked by nearly five years of relentless trial and error, resulting in the creation of a compostable closure. Today, our biodegradable water bottles, caps, and labels are proudly 100% plant-based. This achievement means that our product can be seamlessly processed in recycling facilities, compost installations, boilers, and even potentially digested in advanced digesters that have undergone almost a decade of research and development.
At present, our PCO1810 preform and closure are fully prepared for mass production. These 23.5-gram preforms, equipped with a 28mm neck and a distinctive light blue color, are designed for 500 ml bottles. In 2024, we’re extending our efforts to produce larger preform sizes suitable for 1 and 1.5-liter bottles. The journey towards a more sustainable future continues.
In 2024, we will also start producing other preforms to meet all bottling needs. The speed of that development will depend on the demand from the market and the bottlers who choose to join us. Of course, in addition to the different neck shapes, we will also produce different sizes of preforms. This allows compostable water bottles from 0.33ml to 1.5 liters or larger to be blown with our plant-based preform.
We want to ensure that our bottles are always placed in venues where the correct end of life solution can occur. That is why we have chosen to only use our plant-based bottles in closed-loop locations. Our goal is to collect 90% of our bottles 90% of the time in order to process them properly in the correct end-of-life stream.
We see that it is difficult to create a good end of life for plant-based bottles in normal retail. In normal retail, PET bottles are usually recycled separately or sorted out among the household waste. A PLA recycle flow in normal household waste has not yet been developed in most countries of the world, because the amount of PLA waste is still too small to be a factor to be dealt with.
Within industrial composting, there is still a lot of uncertainty because there have been almost no bottles that have carried a compostable closure—until now. There is a lot of miscommunication about how to deal with plant-based packaging in the waste stream and some people think that every plant-based packaging simply composts in the wild. This is incorrect, there are different plant-based packaging and they do not compost the same. There are those that can compost in the wild and in water and some only compost in special circumstances such as in an industrial composting facilities. In the case of our compostable water bottles, they compost in an industrial composting facility and multiple other options as well.
Because of all these points above, we, therefore, choose not to sell our biodegradable water bottles with water in normal retail, but only in closed-loop venues. If you are interested in switching with your company or brand to a more sustainable bottle for water, please contact us. We are happy to look at the possibilities of how we can use our water bottles in a closed loop to make your company come into the 21st century of environmental awareness.
Why do we still make bottles from oil? Fossil plastic bottles create a large CO2 footprint, create microplastics, and will never leave the earth – so they eventually end up in landfills or littered in the environment. Let’s make bottles a different way — with plant-based material that has multiple end-of-life options.
We distribute our plant-based biodegradable water bottles only within “closed-loop” venues, whereby used containers are collected on-site and undergo proper end-of-life processing. Our goal is to get 90% of the PLA bottles back after use, 90% of the time. Collecting the bottles and send them to the right end of life option. We, therefore, look at closed loop locations for our products.
A lot of locations can be set up as a close loop location. Some are better equipped than others to become a fully closed loop for our bottles. Ideal locations for a closed-loop are catering companies, events, restaurants, cruise lines, hospitals, airports, airlines.
Our PLA bottles have multiple end of life solutions. Every end of life has its own benefits and together with our clients, we decide per location the best end of life solution. We monitor the outcome of the collection and will support getting the highest returns of our plant-based bottles of water.
Does your company need to lower CO2, create a circular environment, lower costs for waste pickup and become single-use plastic free? We supply a full package to create all of this in a closed-loop situation.
With a combination of our unique bio plastic products, other compostable products and our special digester machines we can create this solution for your location. Our digester will compost all bio-plastics and all food waste within 24/48 hours into liquid compost that can be stored and sprayed over the land or transported into the sewage system if needed. This way locations all over the world can be made more environmentally friendly without the need for an external waste facility.
With our solution you can create your own closed-loop location.
