The 'eco-bottle' you can't recycle

17/05/2012 2:56:34 a.m.

Donna Ricketts wrote:

The "Green" way to drink water is from a tap. It doesn't matter what the bottle is made from. The energy used to make the packaging, the fuel burnt transporting the water etc is just unacceptable.

15/05/2012 1:15:00 p.m.

dave wrote:

We need facts. Is this bottle better for the enviroment long term. Will it break down naturally. If so, them make more of them. once they are made in bult, some one will recycle them

9/05/2012 2:09:31 p.m.

Sean wrote:

A lot missing from the news article. The fact that these bottles actually take a lot more energy to produce than the PET bottle. Also the fact that we are using a food source to make a packaging product when a 1/3 of the worlds population are starving.But our "save the world greenies" feel good for buying this bottle... The label just says biodegradable - not that the bottle has to be recycled into a industrial compost. I think Charlies have been sprung - they have played on the goodness of their customers and now have egg on their face.

8/05/2012 9:10:56 p.m.

josh speeden wrote:

i feel this article is treating recycling as a magic cure for dealing with plastics, not only do our plasics have to be shipped to china to be recycled, but they cannot keep getting recycled, , plastic can be recycled several times, but once plastic has been created it has a relatively short shelf life even if recycled many times when considering it is in our earth forever, please google great pacific garbage patch, a giant land of floating waste made up of mostly non compostable oil based plastics, estimates of its size are up to twice the land mass of the united state. its about time we did start considering the giant impacts that our overuse of plastic in disposable situations will have on the future of generations to come, i was in rarotonga about 8 years ago when they using a similar plant based plastic for their supermarket shopping bags, and they use glass bottles for their soft drinks which they clean and reuse for drinks, i also fin it unusual that we dont clean any of our glass bottles and reuse them in New Zealand

8/05/2012 8:21:23 p.m.

Gary McGuire wrote:

Congratulations Charlies for taking the lead or shall I say, the flack. John, the real benefits of compostable packaging has largely being missed in your show. The benefits go far wider than just the cost of compostable packaging. The focus should be on the food waste that accompanies it. If foodwaste is contaminated with non compostable packaging then most likely it is on a one way trip to landfill and a total loss of a very valuable resource. Commercial scale crop trials conducted so far are showing us that if organic waste is diverted from landfills and recycled into benefical compost, the increase yeald in food production and quality of the produce grown has a huge quantifiable value to the GDP of New Zealand per year if our process is adopted nationwide. Other benefits include total carbon sequestration of organic resources and a major reduction of green house gasses being discharged to atmosphere from landfills. It's time to have a lot more responsible focus as to how we make the best use of organic waste as this is a valuable resourcethat we cannot afford to lose. Again, I take my hat off to you Stephan for what you have done. Keep up the good work. Kind regards Gary

8/05/2012 7:30:59 p.m.

Dan wrote:

This bottle is compostable... does it even matter if it goes in the landfill? Does it not simply break down without producing contaminants unlike PET plastics? I fail to see the problem with it going in a landfill in the same way that I fail to see the problem with putting any other compostable items in a landfill. e.g. food scraps

8/05/2012 7:29:49 p.m.

Manan wrote:

If its so easy to compost these bottles maybe ALL wafter bottles should be made from this product. Its healthier too. Chow manan

8/05/2012 2:01:37 p.m.

tofu wrote:

if they are made of corn just eat the buggars!!

8/05/2012 12:55:38 p.m.

PLAmate wrote:

PLA doesn't contain starch. It can be made from starch, but in fact any fermentable sugar is a suitable feedstock. It is expected that within 3 years, economic commercial production of such sugars from cellulose waste, will become a reality. From then you'll be able to use crop and forestry waste and even waste paper that's been recycled too many time to have further use in paper making, as the feedstock for PLA. PLA as a thermoplastic material can be physically recycled, by remelting and forming, just as all other thermoplastics can. Packaging made from PLA is generally also compostable via appropriate industrial composting, although where recycling is an available end of life option, composting is generally only the preferred end of life option where it applies to soiled food packaging and food service ware, say from public events, stadiums, large institutions etc, where the PLA facilitates diversion of food waste from landfill to composting. PLA that does go into landfill, assuming it's a licenced facility, properly designed and maintained, will, like everything else, remain inert. It will also mean that the atmospheric CO2 absorbed by the plants from which it the PLA is made, is sequestered, so in its own small way, landfilling PLA removes GHG from the atmosphere. The Ingeo(tm) PLA from which Charlie's bottles are made,is presently made from maize sugar (dextrose) and the maize is grown near the plant in Blair Nebraska. It's all close enough to the Missouri River that it requires no irrigation. So not only does Ingeo PLA have the lowest carbon footprint of any commercially available plastic, it also have very low water demand. Finally, once there is sufficient PLA available, it offers a unique cradle to cradle life cycle option. Chemical recycling via hydrolysis is commercially viable with only 5,000 tonnes per year. The waste PLA is subjected to super heated steam in a pressure vessel, and reverts to lactic acid. Lactic acid is what PLA is made from.

7/05/2012 11:04:48 a.m.

Matthew wrote:

Michael, this is a terrific result but unfortunately this is a closed loop event where the direction and control of waste is possible. I am not really sure who will process the bottles but at least they have been collected separately. The issue that should next be considered is what happens to the cups used at such an event. I know of a company with a perfect solution to this called "One Green Cup". They work with such events. I hope that he festival was a success!