Highland Spring to launch eco bottle as permanent fixture after shoppers choose sustainability

23 Jan 2019 --- UK producer of natural source water Highland Spring is making its 100 percent recycled and recyclable eco bottle a permanent product offering in 2019. The decision comes after the brand experienced “major success” in a trial of the eco bottle last year. Further eco bottle product ranges will also launch later this year after shoppers expressed a desire for more sustainable options during the trial.

The eco bottle label will feature a “burst of green” and a “100% recycled plastic bottle” message to help people understand more about recycled and recyclable plastics, the brand says.

The new eco bottle joins the existing Highland Spring natural source water range, where all bottles are already 100 percent recyclable. The move marks a significant milestone in efforts to help keep plastic in the circular economy.

According to WRAP, a circular economy is an alternative to a traditional linear economy (make, use, dispose) in which we keep resources in use for as long as possible, extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, then recover and regenerate products and materials at the end of each service life.

Highland Spring also plans to launch a Kids eco bottle, designed to help young people understand more about healthy hydration and responsible recycling. The bottle will be available from May this year.

The major roll-out follows a hugely successful trial conducted last June. The results showed that shoppers responded well to the 100 percent recycled plastic eco bottle, with no negative reaction to the appearance of the recycled plastic and a willingness to pay more for recycled material.

What emerged as key factors in the purchase of the eco bottle were environmental awareness, product availability and location in supermarkets:

• 30 percent of shoppers who bought the eco bottle cited support for the environment as the main reason for purchase.
• Only one in 10 shoppers noticed a difference in the eco bottle as a recycled material.
• Even when shown the eco bottle alongside a standard 100 percent recyclable Highland Spring bottle, only 35 percent of shoppers noticed a difference in its appearance.
• Six in 10 consumers claim they would be happy to spend more on the eco bottle, with the majority believing a 5p increase would be fair.

“The huge success of the trial shows that people are highly engaged with the environmental benefits of a 100 percent recycled plastic eco bottle,” comments Highland Spring Group Chief Executive, Les Montgomery.

“We are grateful to shoppers who gave us their thoughts and feedback, throughout the trial. They asked us to make the eco bottle a permanent addition to the Highland Spring family and we are proud to say that is exactly what we have done.”

“Increasing our use of recycled plastic is an absolute priority for Highland Spring and this is a hugely exciting step in our mission to provide healthy hydration choices in environmentally sustainable ways. We hope that having innovative products such as the eco bottle in supermarkets alongside 100 percent recyclable bottles will help shoppers understand more about plastic as a valuable resource that should not be treated as waste,” he concludes.

UK packaging expert, Richard Coles, tells PackagingInsights that the enforcement of the UK’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme will “provide added impetus for brands to ensure that sustainability is prominently featured in all their packaging design briefs going forwards.”

The UK government’s “Resource and Waste Strategy” states that, “EPR is a powerful environmental policy approach through which a producer’s responsibility is extended to the post-use stage. This incentivizes producers to design their products to make it easier for them to be reused, dismantled or recycled at end of life.”

“EPR will serve to drive innovation for simplified, easier to recycle materials and packs with recycled plastic content,” Coles notes. “For example, over ten years ago, Ribena was the first UK drinks brand to introduce 100 percent recycled content (rPET) bottles which has so far prevented 40,000 tons of additional plastic from being produced.”

By Joshua Poole