Recognise this? Feeling rather confused? So were we. But now we’re here to help clear the chaos and expose the TRUTH behind these plastic giants’ claims. Ultimately, we don’t believe recycled plastic (most of which recycled polyethylene terephthalate, aka rPET) is a solution to plastic pollution. Why not, you ask? Well keep on reading…
It is common knowledge that PET can’t be recycled more than a few times (we’re talking a max of around 5). It’s SO difficult to separate the constituents of plastic, that the idea of a ‘plastic recycling loop’ – ie. a plastic bottle made from another plastic bottle – is just a fantasy. Due to it’s low-quality composition, plastic bottles usually get DOWN-CYCLED to be sold into another form of plastic. This simply delays the inevitable… Hello landfill.
In addition to this recyclable limit, manufactures have to add many more chemicals to the recycled plastic to make it into something usable again… doesn’t sound much like recycling to us!
We’ve done some digging beneath the plastic manufacturers’ claim that circa 60% of PET is recycled. However, the reality behind this stat is really rather different. According to PETCORE’s own report… only 39% of PET is actually recycled. Mind blown. Did the rest just get lost along the way?
Toxicologist Prof. dr. Dick Vethaak has stated “we are dealing with a human health issue as well” and we couldn’t put it any better ourselves. It’s frightening. All plastics, both rPET, PET and more affect our health in numerous ways.
Last but not least, plastic manufactures are deceiving us ALL. They’ll claim that recycling plastic emits less greenhouse gases. They’ll prove this through indigestible LCA (Life-Cycle Assessment) reports and the manipulation of data. It’s true! PET 50cl bottle weights vary massively, so of course they’ll favour ultra-lightweight compositions to use in their comparisons with recycled aluminium cans. A true industry representation? We think not.
On the other hand, recycled cans really DO use 95% less energy to produce than those made from raw materials. Not only is aluminium the most recycled and recyclable packaging on the planet, its composition is recyclable FOREVER with no material degrading. This means in the long run, we’ll be paying it forward – as every can recycled reduces the carbon footprint of the next. Consequently, far LESS greenhouse emissions than plastic!
So let’s face it. Bottles made from bottles is a clever façade. The plastic giants are clearly feeling the sustainability FOMO (fear-of-missing-out) and offering their consumers a fake ‘feel good’ moment when drinking from ‘recycled’ plastic. This can’t be justified! It’s time to pop this bubble of plastic recycling perfection and expose the muddy reality. Recycled, or not, there is ultimately no plastic loop. All plastics will inevitably find their way to our forests, oceans and consequently our stomachs.
So that my dear friends, is straight up #GREENWASHING. Your welcome.
It’s time to ditch the bottle and choose CanO Water!
This website uses cookies or similar technologies as specified in the cookie policy. You can consent to the use of such technologies by accepting and closing this notice.