Product

PLA-based bottled water business

Eco-Container Corporation (ECC) intends to build its PLA-based bottled water business in Canada before expanding into the USA and Europe.

Polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA) is a biodegradable, themoplastic derived from renewable resources, such as corn starch (in the U.S.) or sugarcanes (rest of world). Although PLA has been known for more than a century, it has only been of commercial interest in recent years, in light of its biogradability.

ECC formed a company called The Green Eco-Bottle Corporation (TGEB) to execute its PLA-based bottled water business strategy to make a significant impact toward slowing the process of proliferation of PET bottles.

TGEB is committed to reduce the negative environmental impact caused by non-recycled, non-compostable plastic bottles.

The bottled water market segment in the USA and Canada represents a $16 billion dollar product category. Bottled water comes from one of three methods. It is either spring/and or glacier fed, or municipal water purified through reverse osmosis or it is municipal, filtered water. The bottled water industry is dominated by Nestle, Pepsi and Coca-Cola.

Background on oil-based plastic bottles

Plastic water bottles are typically made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or oil-based plastic bottles. Typically, PET plastic water bottles are not recycled. PET bottles are made for a one-time use only because they are difficult to clean properly. If you think that hot water will remove nasty bacteria, consider that plastic exposed to heat tends to leach chemicals. Hard plastic reusable bottles largely get their hardness from bisphenol A (BPA). The USA Center for Disease Control (CDC) released a study that found 93% of people tested had been exposed to BPA. The study points out a link to health disorders including increased incidence of breast and prostate cancer amongst other disorders.

A 2006 Statistics Canada survey found that 88% of water bottles are not recycled. The USA statistics are similar.

A common myth is that plastics that go into a curbside recycling bin get recycled. The fact is that many plastics are non-recyclable. The recyclable types must be separated out, and the rest go to waste. Many people assume that plastic collected at the curb is converted into new packaging, but plastic recycling only provides a temporary diversion from landfills. Most recovered plastic packaging is made into secondary products (textiles, parking lot bumpers, or plastic lumber) that are not recyclable.

Approximately 60,000,000 PET plastic bottles go into land fills in North America every day. According to the Earth Policy Institute, it takes 1.5 million barrels of oil, enough to fuel 100,000 cars for a year, to make the plastic bottles that meet American’s demand for bottled water.