British bottled water brand Harrogate Water has successfully secured sufficient availability of recycled PET to ensure all its product packaging shall contain 50% recycled content from April 2018.
The amount of recycled PET content will match that of Harrogate’s glass bottles which are also made with 50% recycled content.
The move follows a similar initiative announced by Wenlock Springs. Meanwhile, Danone-owned Evian announced it will make all of its plastic bottles from 100% recycled plastic by 2025.
Last year, Harrogate launched a recycling campaign with environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy that urges consumers to dispose of their bottles responsibly, by twisting and capping, making them easy to carry to a recycling point or take home for kerbside recycling.
James Cain, Harrogate Water CEO
Harrogate Water CEO James Cain said: “It is not an inevitability that plastic bottles end up in our rivers and oceans. We all have a responsibility to ensure that we dispose of our packaging properly and recycle our bottles so that they can go on to become another bottle or other useful product, just as we already do with our cans and glass bottles. We shouldn’t think of them or refer to them as single use; they can have an infinite number of lives.
“Naturally sourced water is the healthiest drink. Harrogate Water is sourced from within a Site of Special Scientific Interest, caring for the environment is in our DNA which is why we have partnered with Keep Britain Tidy to encourage recycling. The more we recycle, the greater the availability of rPET and the closer we get to a truly circular economy.
He added: “PET plastic used to make beverage bottles is the most environmentally efficient of all packaging solutions – providing it is recycled; it uses less energy in manufacture, produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions and is one of the best examples of easily recyclable packaging. The introduction of rPET represents a significant investment for the business; we are proud and delighted to take this next step in support of sustainability.”
Last year, Harrogate invested £6.5 million in a bottling facility in North Yorkshire, UK, which can handle both glass and PET plastic production.
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