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Compostable water bottles
Since 2008 we produce PLA preforms for compostable water bottles. Starting with our “green bottles” and now the light blue and clear preforms, along with dark green and white closures, all are 100% plant-based and 100% non-gmo.
More information
Compostable water bottles, how did it start?
We have been producing PLA preforms for compostable water bottles since 2008. Our compostable water bottles were selected as part of the “Green the Capital Initiative” by then Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the House of Representatives. Other US government buildings implemented a “closed-loop” program by taking the bottles to the USDA’ Beltsville, MD Compost Facility in the state of Maryland. At that time, however, a compostable cap had still eluded PLA bottle manufacturers.
More recently, a large outdoor weekend event in New York City utilized the compostable water bottles (with compostable caps) in the summer of 2018 and several major events. Bottle, cap, and the label must all be plant-based plastic to ensure that the waste stream can be properly processed in different “end of life” environments. With a petroleum plastic cap, two end-of-life streams are needed. The bottle composts well, but the cap and the ring around the neck of the bottle remain in the compost because they do not compost and pollute the compost. When burning our bottle, no harmful substances are released, but with the plastic cap, that statement cannot be made. Also with recycling, the PLA would be contaminated, if the tamper-evident band comes from petroleum.
All in all, it was time we started developing a 100% plant-based compostable cap. It took almost five years of trial and error to develop a compostable closure, but our compostable water bottles, cap and label are finally 100% plant-based. A product that can be processed in recycling, compost installations, boilers and/or possibly digested in a digester that has been in continued research and development for almost a decade.
At the moment, our PCO1810 preform and closure is ready for mass production. This 23.5 gram preform with a 28mm neck has a light blue color and is suitable for 500 ml. bottles.
Compostable water bottles - now and the future
In 2021, we will also start producing additional preforms to meet other 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 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.
We see that in normal retail it is difficult to create a good end of life for plant-based bottles. 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 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.
The new factory for mass producing PLA bottles and caps
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Our compostable water bottles pilot locations
Coming soon
One of the largest cruise lines is replacing all their fossil plastic water bottles. Using our bottles and our patented “BMD machine”. This will lower their CO2 footprint, creates a circular environment, lowers waste disposal costs and minimize single-use fossil plastic.
Coming soon
An airline with their home-base UAE wants to be fossil plastic-free on all of their flights. They make it happen with our plant-based bottles.
International regulation requires cabin waste to be send to an incinerator. Our bottle is safe to burn with no toxic outcome.
Ideal closed loop location
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We distribute our plant-based compostable 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.
