CG Roxane expands rPET capacity as research reveals Americans distrust companies claiming to be “green”

02 Jun 2021 --- US-based CG Roxane is expanding its San Bernardino, California, recycling plant capacity, enabling its West Coast bottling plants to incorporate 50 percent recycled PET (rPET) into all Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring Water bottles. 

The privately held company is also “breaking ground” on a second rPET facility at its Benton, Tennessee, plant, helping it reach its minimum 50 percent rPET target and move toward the ultimate goal of 100 percent rPET nationwide. The Benton plant is expected to open in early 2022.

“CG Roxane is nearly ten years ahead of the California law of meeting a minimum of 50 percent rPET by 2030 (15 percent required by January 2022) and will continue this trend in states served by the Benton rPET facility and beyond,” Luke Genthe, CG Roxane San Bernardino plant manager, tells PackagingInsights.

CG Roxane – the family-owned and operated maker of Crystal Geyser – became the first US beverage company to open a mechanically rPET (rPET) processing plant in July 2020.

The company has also pledged to plant one million trees by the end of the year in partnership with American Forests and then plant one million more as part of the “1M Strong & Counting” campaign.

Meanwhile, new research conducted by OnePoll on behalf of CG Roxane has found Americans distrust companies that claim to be “green.”

US consumers wary of greenwashing
The OnePoll national survey of 2,000 Americans revealed 71 percent of respondents believe companies claim to be sustainable even when their actions are not.

The distrust means less than a third (26 percent) of respondents are “very likely” to believe a company using words like “green” to describe its products.CG Roxane says it has perfected its rPET blend, overcoming discoloration issues for a consistent visual appearance.

Meanwhile, 71 percent believe the term “green” is used so often it has become meaningless, with “eco-friendly” (57 percent) and “sustainable” (36 percent) also high on the list of overused and empty terms.

However, the survey found despite mistrusting labels, 23 percent are still “much more” likely to purchase from companies using terms like “green” to describe their products.

CG Roxane says this consumer purchasing behavior is not surprising given that 68 percent try to make environmentally-conscious decisions in their day-to-day lives.

Moreover, the average respondent said they would be willing to spend 21 percent more than retail price for a product if they could guarantee what they were buying was actually eco-friendly.

Catching the eco-conscious eye
Genthe says one of CG Roxane’s goals is to help consumers understand the environmental benefits of recycled and recyclable PET bottles within a circular economy paradigm.

“One of our mottos is ‘we make it, we take it back.’ While some of our products are still made from virgin PET in the regions not served by one of our rPET facilities, it is our end-goal to reach 100 percent rPET content in our products nationally.”OnePoll has found Americans distrust companies that claim to be “green.”

“We have worked diligently to perfect the rPET blend used in bottling. Over the past year, CG Roxane has overcome discoloration issues and finalized the perfect blend for its rPET bottles to maintain a consistent visual appearance.”

However, material availability can also be a challenge, continues Genthe.

“The recycling industry has limitations based on how much people recycle. There is also large variability – from supplier to supplier – of how clean the PET flake is, which creates difficulty on our end in maintaining our rigid quality control parameters.”

The OnePoll findings revealed 59 percent of Americans specifically look for companies that make it easier to make “greener” decisions, though nearly the same number (58 percent) said they struggle to find companies who live up to their “green” claims.

“We believe it is not only important to be an environmentally-friendly and a sustainability-forward company, but ultimately consumers gravitate to those who are doing more than putting words on a label,” concludes Genthe.

Overused and empty terms
According to the OnePoll research, the top ten terms companies overuse are:

1. Eco-friendly (57 percent)
2. Sustainable (36 percent)
3. Organic (32 percent)
4. Renewable (29 percent)
5. Environmentally conscious (28 percent)
6. Natural (27 percent)
7. Clean (26 percent)
8. Ethical (25 percent)
9. Fairtrade (22 percent)
10. Biodegradable (21 percent)

By Joshua Poole