Tag Archives: ENSO Bottles

Will New Green Guide Revisions Help or Hinder Efforts to Market Eco-Friendly Products?

Photo by J Bloom

In light of recent news that SunChips is pulling their compostable bag off supermarket shelves, and the release of the new green marketing standards, now’s a good time to get down to the nitty-gritty of labeling. Are labels like “eco-friendly”, “biodegradable”, “compostable”, and “recyclable” a good idea, or do they just muddy the waters? Is there really any way for consumers to know what they’re buying?

The SunChips bag was pulled because it is supposedly too noisy, interfering with the consumer experience. Online chitter-chatter over the decision suggests that people didn’t really mind the extra bag noise, and the ones who did might be willing to make some sacrifices because they felt the bag’s environmental benefits outweighed any inconvenience…or do they?

Here’s where some critics have, shall we say, made noise over the issue. The bag is marketed as being fully compostable—and like all PLA (Poly-Lactic Acid, derived from starch from corn or potatoes) plastics it technically is—in a commercial-grade composting facility, where temperatures are high enough and conditions are perfect enough to break it down. The fine print, if there were any, could read that unless the packaging is disposed of in such a facility, it isn’t going to break down in a timely manner. Since the majority of consumers don’t have access to these mega-composting facilities, are the bags—or any PLA plastics—a sustainable solution to the packaging, and subsequent waste, conundrum?

Photo Courtesy of Bookshelf Boyfriend

Not really, it seems. If thrown in the landfill or the home compost pile, these products aren’t going anywhere fast; if recycled, they can contaminate whole batches of otherwise recyclable waste. So what about customer perception? Most people who buy these products think they are making a sustainable choice, and are casting a vote for the planet with their consumer dollar, when it can be argued that in fact, these products aren’t much better for the environment than conventional plastic. Indeed, they may even create new problems. Mass production of PLA materials requires farmland to grow the corn to make the plastics, instead of for food production, which could lead to rainforest destruction and increased use of petrochemicals, among others. Finally, these plastics are compostable* (*read the fine print), but not necessarily biodegradable, which may cause confusion for the consumer, and such claims could be misleading.

What it really comes down to is semantics, and these labels have been the subject of debate for months on the federal level, with greenwashing being the primary motivation for the FTC to take a look at how products are being marketed. Revisions to the Green Guides were released this week, with the proposed updates aiming to help businesses “better align their product claims with consumer expectations”.

Photo courtesy of voteprime.

The updates specifically define what “compostable”, “(bio)degradable” and “recyclable” mean, and do a good job of laying it out in a two-page summary of the nearly 200-page document. If a product is to be marketed as “compostable”, then it should, according to the proposed standards, break down into usable compost in the same amount of time as other materials in the pile. The meaning of “degradable” is also clarified, saying that in order to be labeled as such, the product must completely decompose in a “reasonably short period of time”, or no more than one year.

So what does this all mean for companies developing and marketing green products, and the consumers spending hard earned dollars to buy them? The heart of the matter lies in transparency. If a company advertises any kind of environmental certification or label, they must be very clear about how the product delivers, and be able to substantiate such claims. Period. Will this require more work on the back end? Of course. Will it make a difference in the quality of sustainable products available on the market? We can only hope so.

If nothing else, these revisions will help reduce instances of greenwashing, and hopefully hold those companies making green claims to higher standards. Clarifying the definitions of eco-labels will also make it easier for consumers to make informed decisions—which at the end of the day, helps keep the process on track and moving forward.

Why Recycling is NOT Enough to Solve Plastic Bottle Pollution

The environmental impact that we humans have is very complex.  Much of what we do in our daily lives have unintended consequences.  There are some that believe plastics need to eliminated from being used.  There may be some valid points to their argument however, the alternatives are usually not as environmentally friendly as what we have today.  In most cases plastics provide a more environmental and healthy packaging solution than their predecessor.  Yes, it is true our abuse of plastics has lead to pollution issues in the oceans, landfills and other areas that we may never be able to fully clean up.  Although there are a number of environmental groups, organizations, companies and many individuals who are diligently trying to solve the plastic pollution issue.

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ENSO Bottles Customer, Texas Rain Already Pouring in Profit

David Schraub was planning to transition from the semiconductor industry to solar energy when he got what many could call a true brainstorm.

It was 2007 when he noticed a distant storm while driving to Corpus Christi and realized that he could make a business out of capturing rainwater. Last month, his idea evolved into his Smithville-based business, Texas Natural Rainwater Harvesting & Bottling LLC, reaching profitability by selling bottled rainwater. More specifically, 60,000 bottles of the product provided by Mother Nature have been sold at dozens of local businesses and organizations since April.

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East Valley Tribute.com Interviews ENSO Bottles

For more than a year, the marriage of Danny and Teresa Clark of Mesa was dominated by trying to change the way products are packaged.

“It was 100 percent, 24-hour-a-day thinking,” Teresa Clark said. “We did research to the end of the Internet. There were a lot of sleepless nights, but what kept us going was the passion and drive to know that something had to be done.”

The result is a recyclable, fully biodegradable plastic bottle produced by ENSO Bottles, the Clarks’ Mesa-based company. The bottles — a collaborative effort of chemists, microbiologists and manufacturers, among others — are primarily used by a handful of water companies.

The Clarks hope to expand the bottles’ reach to such products as soda, shampoo, medicine and wine.

“We didn’t invent anything ourselves directly,” Danny Clark said. “We worked with manufacturers and compounders. We were able to tweak it and bring it together to develop a product that is not only recyclable, but breaks down naturally.”

The process of developing organic materials and synthetic polymers to bond with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) — the resin typically used in plastic containers — took about 18 months.

Danny Clark said bottles that use starch-based and oxo-degradable plastic break down in compost environments, but not landfills, where most nonrecycled containers end up.

“It was a lot of trial and error,” Danny Clark said. “We tried this material and that material and ran the biodegration tests. We would do additional research to find compounds to mix together better. The issue was getting the right stuff to mix together from a chemistry perspective. There were dozens of mixtures to go through, and making it biodegradable was probably the easy part. The hard part was getting it to mix with the plastic.”

Among the water companies using ENSO bottles are Balance, Aquamantra, Ecoviva and Project 7.

Martin Chalk, co-founder of Balance Water, said his company spent more than a year looking for a suitable bottle before choosing the ENSO product in November.

The production is still in its infancy, Chalk said, and there are challenges.

“The bottles are clear, but not as clear as regular PET,” Chalk said. “It can vary from batch to batch. You have to get the temperature just right when you blow the bottle forms. It’s still a learning curve, but over time, as biodegradable bottles become more popular, the machinery should be able to cope with it better.

“It’s kind of like a new printing-press process — you have to have a master technician get it just right. Soon, it will become more foolproof.”

A recyclable, biodegradable bottle costs about two cents more to produce.

“There’s more steps,” Teresa Clark said. “But I haven’t heard anyone say they were against paying 90 cents for a better bottle as opposed to 88.”

View original article: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/business/article_1f642176-aa40-11df-941e-001cc4c03286.html

Over 400 Gather to Celebrate Opening of Texas Natural Rainwater Facility

Monday, Aug 4, 2010 Texas Natural Rainwater held the first tri city ribbon cutting ceremony kicking off their facilities grand opening.  It was a public display of support for the bottling facility where over 400 gathering to celebrate the opening of Texas Natural Rainwater.  The event was a huge success with visitors such as Todd Staples the agriculture commissioner and the district house state representative.

Texas Natural Rainwater is an environmentally focused bottling company.  Texas Natural Rainwatercollects and filters local Texas rainwater and bottles it in biodegradable ENSO bottles.

They can be reached for more information about the company at their website www.Texas-Rain.net or call 512-772-1544.

Congratulations to Texas Natural Rainwater and thank you for making a positive difference in the environment!!!

Below are some pictures of the event:

Are ENSO Bottles the Answer to Eliminating Sea Pollution

Recently, ENSO Bottles was asked to address the following questions:

  1. How do Enso bottle behave in a low temperature marine environment?
  2. When Enso bottles eventually fragment in the ocean, do they attract POPs in the same way that Petroleum plastics do, posing potential human health threats through the food chain?
  3. Why has Enso chosen petroluem plastics as opposed to a plant based, biodegradable material?

These questions come up all the time, so we thought we’d post our answers to these questions on our blog.  So here it goes…

In any environment where there is a bio-active environment, ENSO bottles will naturally biodegrade. Currently, there is a lot of research going into marine degradation, but there is still a lot of work to do. Marine environments vary drastically from region to region due to various water depths, types of water, etc.  Unfortunately, marine environments are more complicated than soil environments.

It’s also, important to understand the type of polymer and how it behaves in marine environments.  For example, PET which is used for water, soda, juice and other beverages is a dense polymer and will sink to the bottom.  There is very little bioactive environments found directly in marine environments, but at the bottom of those marine environments this is a lot of  bio-active, microbial activity.  This is where the bottles have the highest opportunity to biodegrade.  In reality, we need to keep plastics out of the ocean regardless of the kind.  We have dumped garbage into the oceans for decades and are now dealing with those consequences.  Biodegradable plastics are better than non-biodegradable plastics, however in our opinion no plastics in marine environments is the solution.

Currently, there are no plant based technologies that make environmental sense.  We believe plant based plastics are a good fit for packaging that involves food items, so that there is the highest chance possible for making it into a professional composting environment.  Plant based plastics require an initial chemical breakdown before microbes can do the rest.  This chemical breakdown happens from the exposure to high temp (140 degrees) for 10 days.  If plant based plastics do not make it in such environments they will last just as long as traditional plastics. Most people do not realize this.

Bottles basically have two main disposal paths: recycling or landfills, the third, although small, but important is liter.  The technology we utilize allows ENSO bottles to be fully recycled without contaminating the recycle stream, but for those bottles (which are the majority) that end up in bio-active environments, they will naturally biodegrade with the help of microbes.  We fully believe that we need to improve recycling so that it becomes the primary solution for plastics.  Coke is setting a good direction with using plant material as biochemicals which end up as the same strong polymers we have today, but are from non-fossil fuels.  Plant based plastics will last forever in landfills just like standard plastics.  They, also do take up farming resources and require A LOT of petroleum resources.  Keep in mind that petroleum is also a plant based material.  It is fossilize algae that is processed.  A true plant based environmental solution will revolve around feedstocks such as algae or waste material from other processes.

In the end, it is extremely tough (close to impossible) to design a plastic that will be perfect to all environments and all disposal methods.  We felt that something needed to be done today and the step in the right direction is to integrate into the existing infrastructure of recycling and landfilling.  We believe no matter the type of plastic it doesn’t belong in the ocean or other marine environments.  The solution that works today is to allow plastics to be recycled, and will naturally biodegrade if placed in bioactive environments. This is the best solution available today until we move away from fossil fuels.

ENSO Bottles is a small company in comparison to the companies producing hundreds of billions of bottles per year. Somebody needed to step up and do something, and not wait until tomorrow or until the perfect solution arrives.  We believe we have taken a step in the right direction by doing something now, and will continue our quest in bringing to market the best available technologies which will solve the problem with plastic pollution.

Many thanks,

Danny Clark

Texas Rain bottles rainwater from Texas in an ENSO bottle

Texas Rain is a local company that bottles and sells Central Texas rain water.

“It’s real rain water, and it’s the solar incentive for Texas,” company spokesperson David Schraub said. “We’re going to be shipping this all over Texas. Right now, we’re in the 15 county regions and we’re moving in the other markets.”

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ENSO donates bottled water to homeless

Monday, March 1, 2010 at 6:22pm

Rotaract is dedicated to making the world a better place, but might see the world from a slightly different perspective than Rotary. Rotaractors are between the ages of 18 and 30, and are typically very early in their careers. Although still fresh to the professional world, they are future leaders in business, politics and the community. Continue reading →

Liquid Promotions goes with ENSO Bottles

Atlanta based, Liquid Promotions, now carries ENSO’s biodegradable bottle. Liquid Promotions can offer your business a wide array of water bottle labels on a classy sleek eco-friendly bottle that contains refreshing spring water from mountains of North Georgia.

Learn more at: http://www.customlabeledbottledwater.com/home