Evian Plans Switch to 100% Recycled Plastic Bottles by 2025

Credit: Evian

Evian will have 100% recycled plastic bottles for all of its water by 2025, the water brand’s parent company Danone announced. In order to achieve this, Evian’s strategy involves collaborating with startup Loop Industries to redesign its packaging, Reuters reported.

Currently Evian’s plastic bottles use about 25% recycled plastic, according to Fast Company’s Adele Peters. One hurdle has been the process for recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which limits recycling the material to three times before quality suffers, Reuters’ Dominique Vidalon noted.

Loop Technologies, based near Montreal in Terrebonne, Quebec, has developed a technology that the company says decouples plastic from fossil fuels, breaking down waste PET to its base building blocks. Founder and CEO Daniel Solomita told Fast Company that the low-energy process uses minimal heat, pressure, and a proprietary catalyst to depolymerize waste plastic into components for making virgin plastic.

“A bottle made through the process can also be recycled over and over again, using the same process, without degrading in quality,” Peters wrote. In addition to teaming up with Loop Technologies, Evian is working with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to help fully close the loop and establish a circular economy.

Evian, the third largest bottled water company in the world, is not alone in pursuing new, ambitious goals around recycling. Earlier this month McDonald’s announced plans to source all of its packaging from renewable, recycled or certified sustainable sources restaurants by 2025. Also in January, several large European organizations including Plastics Recyclers Europe, Petcore Europe, and the European Carpet and Rug Association said they will recycle 50% of their plastics waste by 2040.

Spice-maker McCormick redesigned its black pepper and Old Bay cans, switching from metal to recyclable plastic. “The cost of recycling metal plate is getting very expensive because of the energy required. On the other hand PET, which is the workhorse of the packaging industry, doesn’t require that much heat to be melted and recycled,” Michael Okoroafor, VP of global sustainability and packaging innovation for McCormick recently told Environmental Leader.

The strategic market research consulting service Research Nestor published a report last year predicting that the global sustainable packaging market will grow 7.5% CAGR by the end of 2024.

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