Arrowhead Increases Recycled Plastic Content in Water Bottles

Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water has increased the amount of recycled plastic used in its bottle production.

The Nestlé Waters brand says that nine out of 10 of its Arrowhead bottles made in California incorporate 50 percent post-consumer recycled plastic content. It attributes this increase in recycled content to high plastic recycling rates in California and says it is part of Nestlé Waters’ larger effort to reduce plastic waste.

The announcement follows news last week that Nestlé Waters and Danone — the world’s two largest bottled water companies — have teamed up to develop and launch at commercial scale a PET plastic bottle made from 100 percent bio-based material.

Both efforts will help the companies diverts waste from landfills.

Bottle-to-bottle PET recycling firm CarbonLite Industries estimates that, since 2012, Arrowhead’s use of 86 million pounds of recycled plastic have saved 69,660 tons of carbon emissions versus the use of virgin plastic.

Arrowhead partnered with CarbonLITE to provide the recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) material used in its bottles. The recycled materials are collected primarily in California.

The increased use of recycled plastic helped Arrowhead meet its goal to use recycled content in most of its bottle sizes by the end of 2016. The company says it is continuing to invest in efforts to support responsible environmental stewardship in California.

Across the country, Nestlé Waters North America has also reduced the amount of plastic used in its half-liter water bottles by more than 60 percent nationwide over the last two decades. Parent company Nestlé has also committed to achieve zero waste to landfill status in all US factories by 2020.