July, 2009 – ENSO Bottles LLC has been awarded the Green Education Network Seal of Approval because its product makes a needed contribution to the problem of non-recycled plastic, and ENSO has demonstrated a commitment to education. ENSO bottles are 100% biodegradable, decompose in about five years and add little to the cost of a bottled beverage or other product. Like traditional PET bottles, the ENSO bottles also can be recycled along with nonbiodegradable PET bottles without being separated.
PET stands for Polyethylene Terephthalate, a plastic that’s used as a container for water, soft drinks, other foods, and non-food items such as household cleaners. PET containers can be recycled into new bottles and other products, but most of the millions of tons in use each year wind up in landfills, roadsides, rivers, lakes and oceans, where they can take hundreds of years to decompose.
In an effort to help reduce the tons of plastic bottle waste accumulating in our nation’s solid waste facilities, ENSO Bottles™, in partnership with Resilux America and Bio-tec Environmental, is bringing Eco-Pure™ technology to the PET bottle industry through specially formulated additive, preforms and blown bottles. ENSO Bottles™ and Bio-Tec Environmental are both environmental companies with a dedication to providing earth friendly biodegradable plastic solutions, and together, are offering the latest scientific advances to the PET industry.
ENSO bottles are not Oxo-degradable or PLA (corn based) plastics. ENSO bottles are biodegradable in aerobic (compost) and anaerobic (landfill) environments, breaking down through microbial action into biogases and inert humus leaving behind no harmful materials. ENSO bottles are recyclable and can be mixed into the standard PET recycling stream.
Launched in 2008, ENSO Bottles, LLC was created with a vision of bringing environmentally focused solutions to the PET bottling industry. In partnership with Resilux America and Bio-tec Environmental, ENSO Bottles™ is bringing Eco-Pure™ technology to the PET bottle industry through specially formulated additive, preforms and blown bottles.
ENSO CEO Danny Clark told GEN, “Our mission is to develop, promote and bring to market earth friendly plastic PET bottle solutions. We also believe that an important part of our business is to provide education on the topic of biodegradable plastics.”
“We believe in approaching business with an integral perspective in understanding the impact and sustainability of our products. Our long-term goals are to develop renewable and sustainable sources of bioplastics which are derived from non-food feedstocks. Our future products will assist in reducing our dependence on unsustainable resources such as fossil fuels.”
“Our current biodegradable products will greatly assist in reducing plastic bottle pollution in both landfill and ocean environments. Current ENSO Bottles are recyclable with traditional PET. We strongly encourage and assist corporations, municipalities and organizations in creating viable recycling programs. We promote the recapture and use of bio-gasses created from landfills and bioreactor landfills to be used in creation of clean bio-energy.”
“We chose the name, ENSO Bottles™ to reflect the concept and life cycle of our products. Our name and logo, ENSO, represents wholeness and the returning to where it initially began. Our bottles reflect this precept, originating from the earth, providing a value of use, and returning to the earth in a reusable organic form.”
California-based Aquamantra water will be the first corporation to use ENSO’s 100% biodegradable bottles, according to an Aquamantra announcement.
The goal, said Aquamantra founder and president Alexandra Teklak, is to cut the amount of non-degradable plastic in landfills, an issue that a number of cities have cited in removing bottled water from government offices.
“I have a love for this planet and a love for humanity,” said Teklak. “I’m just so grateful to be a leader in the solution.”
Teklak said she ruled out bottles made from cornstarch (PLA) because the company needed a bottle that would survive 1-2 years in stores before beginning to degrade. Other possible solutions, such as oxy-degradables require sunlight to breakdown, according to an Aquamantra news release, making it difficult to dispose of them in landfills.
“I just wanted people to know, we really do care,” said Teklak, whose Aquamantra water is sold under four names: I Am Healthy, I Am Loved, I Am Lucky and I Am Grateful. The spring water comes from Palomar Mountain Spring near San Diego, Ca.
Aquamantra is the first company to announce it will use ENSO Bottles, said Clark, but the company already has orders for over 5 billion from other corporations, including non-food suppliers, such as cosmetics firms. Companies either can order complete bottles from ENSO or buy the material to make bottles and form their own.
Within months, consumers should start seeing ENSO bottles in a variety of stores, said Clark.
She said the firms that contributed to creation of the bottles are hoping consumers will see them as an answer to the landfill-clogging problems that go with PET containers and to the health worries associated with [other types of non-PET*] hard plastic bottles that contain Bisphenol A (BPA), a weak estrogenic compound that studies are linking to health problems because it leaches into food or water.
“We’re trying to encompass the entire industry that handles PET packaging,” she said.
One ENSO-related issue is what happens to the methane gas produced when ENSO bottles degrade, said Clark. Methane is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming but it can be captured and used as fuel. “We’re working with landfills to capture the methane,” said Clark.
*ie BPA is not used in PET bottles – GEN Publisher