Comments on: Biodegradable ‘Plastic’ Bottles http://www.freshlygreen.com/2008/10/17/biodegradable-plastic-bottles/ For Your Ideas and Questions about Living Green Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:57:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Max http://www.freshlygreen.com/2008/10/17/biodegradable-plastic-bottles/comment-page-1/#comment-378605 Max Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:14:16 +0000 http://www.freshlygreen.com/?p=331#comment-378605 We agree that plastic bottle pollution is a growing problem. More than 150 billion water bottles are produced each year and that’s not counting soft drinks, sports drink, tea, etc. The problem is that only 20 – 30 percent is being recycled and the rest are ending up in our oceans, streams, lakes and landfills. We knew something needed to be done.....and quick. We felt that a realistic approach toward solving this problem would be to develop a plastic bottle that would biodegrade, leaving behind harmless biogases and humus. We looked at PLA (Corn based plastics) as a solution but decided against that because we feel that food grains should be used for food. Using food grain or land that should be used for food to make our fuels and plastics wasn’t a good idea. Additionally, PLA results in the use of more pesticides, genetically altered corn, depleted soils, and higher food prices. We looked at the oxo-degradable plastics, the kind that break down into smaller and smaller pieces until they are invisible to the eye...they don’t go away, they just get smaller. We didn’t think that was a good idea either. We decided that PET plastic, the kind we currently use for water and soft drinks would be a better choice if it could be made less harmful for our environment. It’s been a lot of work but we just announced our logo program for the world’s first truly biodegradable plastic bottle. We just introduced our logo program so that consumers will be able to identify our bottles and chose a product that will be better for us and future generations. ENSO Bottles will biodegrade, into biogases and humus. It’s not the final answer, but it is a big step in the right direction. Look for the ENSO logo and make a choice for “Bottles for a Healthier Earth.” We agree that plastic bottle pollution is a growing problem. More than 150 billion water bottles are produced each year and that’s not counting soft drinks, sports drink, tea, etc. The problem is that only 20 – 30 percent is being recycled and the rest are ending up in our oceans, streams, lakes and landfills. We knew something needed to be done…..and quick. We felt that a realistic approach toward solving this problem would be to develop a plastic bottle that would biodegrade, leaving behind harmless biogases and humus.
We looked at PLA (Corn based plastics) as a solution but decided against that because we feel that food grains should be used for food. Using food grain or land that should be used for food to make our fuels and plastics wasn’t a good idea. Additionally, PLA results in the use of more pesticides, genetically altered corn, depleted soils, and higher food prices.
We looked at the oxo-degradable plastics, the kind that break down into smaller and smaller pieces until they are invisible to the eye…they don’t go away, they just get smaller. We didn’t think that was a good idea either.
We decided that PET plastic, the kind we currently use for water and soft drinks would be a better choice if it could be made less harmful for our environment.
It’s been a lot of work but we just announced our logo program for the world’s first truly biodegradable plastic bottle. We just introduced our logo program so that consumers will be able to identify our bottles and chose a product that will be better for us and future generations.

ENSO Bottles will biodegrade, into biogases and humus. It’s not the final answer, but it is a big step in the right direction.

Look for the ENSO logo and make a choice for “Bottles for a Healthier Earth.”

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