| Belu brings first bio-bottle to UK
Packaging News, 01 August 2006
The UK¡¯s first biodegradable plastic bottle has gone on sale in Waitrose under the Belu Natural Mineral Water brand.
Made from PLA, a corn-derived polymer from US company NatureWorks, the bottle can be commercially composted back to soil in 12 weeks.
¡°The potential for helping the planet is enormous,¡± said Mai Simonsen, a Belu founding member. ¡°This can dramatically reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill.¡±
At present, however, the UK does not have the municipal composting facilities to allow these ¡®bio-bottles¡¯, which are considered to be a number seven plastic, to be composted correctly. Nick Whatmoor, Belu sales director, said: ¡°We are working on pilot programmes to enable every council to soon begin taking this bio-bottle. This is the first step of the journey.¡±
The bottle took two years to develop and Belu has opened a special factory in the Black Mountains, Wales, which has been fitted with a ¡®cornulator¡¯ to enable the large-scale manufacture of the containers.
Belu worked with Colorado, US-based polymer converter Planet Friendly Products on developing the bottle and sought advice from Biota Spring Water, also based in Colorado, as it was the first bottled water brand to launch a compostable pack. |
