Danone’s evian launches label-free fully recycled water bottles in Singapore

19 Mar 2021 --- Danone’s evian mineral water brand is launching its first label-free, 100 percent recyclable and recycled PET (rPET) bottle in Singapore, excluding the cap. The stripped-back 400 ml bottle took two years to develop and features an engraved logo and a new pink cap. 

Aligning with Singapore’s Zero Waste Masterplan and Global Recycling Day (March 18), the packaging marks a key milestone in evian’s ambition to make all of its plastic bottles from 100 percent recycled plastic.

However, the caps on evian’s label-free bottles are not produced from rPET. HDPE and OPP plastics are used to help preserve water purity and quality for consumers, evian maintains. 

HDPE and OPP plastics are recyclable, and the brand encourages consumers to check their local recycling listings and recycle all evian bottles in the correct steam.

“Today’s announcement positions evian as a pioneer in sustainable design solutions… [and] acts as a tangible proof of our commitment to becoming a circular brand by 2025,” comments Shweta Harit, evian global brand VP.

“It’s now more important than ever for us to bring consumers our natural mineral water in a more sustainable way.”

Emmanuelle Giraudon, engineer in research and innovation at Danone, adds: “This new innovation is extremely exciting... Thanks to the engraving, we can preserve the natural beauty of the bottle and be closer to the water’s purity.”The 400 ml bottle features an engraved logo and a new pink cap.

“We wanted to keep the ‘evian touch’ when designing the bottle, and we created a new pink cap especially for the bottle too. Our revolution makes old plastic the ultimate new innovation.”

The new bottle is now available at Lazada, Redmart and SaladStop, and will be made available at other hotel, café and retail outlets in coming months.

Singapore’s hovering recycling rates
While the bulk of Singapore’s efforts to manage plastic waste are downstream solutions such as recycling or upcycling, statistics have shown that the overall recycling rate has been hovering at about 60 percent in recent years (Min, 2021).

According to Channel News Asia, one of the country’s barriers to recycling occurs at material recovery facilities, where only 50 to 60 percent out of 60 tons of materials received from household collections per day are suitable for recycling (Min, 2021).

Carbon-neutral circularity
In early 2020, evian received a global certification for carbon-neutrality from the Carbon Trust. The achievement of this global standard reflects the outcome of evian’s commitment and ongoing efforts to reduce virgin plastic and increase recycled plastic use, the brand says.

The new evian bottle cements the brand's sustainability commitment and further paves the way for efforts to reduce plastic waste. Evian is committed to making all of its plastic bottles from 100 percent recycled plastic by 2025, adopting a “circular approach” to plastic where the material is kept within the economy and out of nature.

With input from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, evian developed a roadmap to move from a linear model to circularity, where all bottles are made from recycled plastic.

The brand plans to achieve this through pioneering partnerships to redesign its packaging, accelerate recycling initiatives and remove plastic waste from nature.In early 2020, evian received a global certification for carbon-neutrality.

Earlier in the year, Virgil Abloh, artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s men’s wear collection, designed an rPET evian bottle with a crushed-hammered effect, representing the previous life of each bottle. The bottle is available from this month in the US.

Danone’s sustainability goals
FMCG giant Danone is committed to halving the virgin plastic used by its water brands, reaching 50 percent rPET use worldwide and 100 percent across Europe by 2025.

Danone is also accelerating toward carbon neutrality in Europe by 2025, with evian and Volvic becoming carbon neutral this year. The company expects its water brand portfolio to achieve B Corp certification worldwide by 2022.

Moreover, Danone aims to match every liter of water sold with a liter for people in need by creating a fund to help 50 million people in developing countries access safe drinking water by 2030. It is also working to enhance watershed and wetlands preservation globally.

WeActForWater falls within Danone’s recently announced €2 billion (US$2.4 billion) investment acceleration plan, investing between 2020-2022 to further transform its agriculture, energy and operations, packaging and digital capabilities.

By Joshua Poole