Like minded individuals came together with the common goal to helping solve the plastic pollution issue and as a result we created ENSO Bottles.   Our mission and goal is to solve the plastic pollution issue specifically as a result of bottles.  If you have ever noticed we each use A LOT of bottles during our day to day living; shampoo, cosmetics, soap, hand sanitizer, water, soda, juice, milk, cleaning supplies, and the list goes on.  After several years of R&D we brought to market a solution that allows bottles to naturally biodegrade, especially when they end up in the most common place, a landfill.  Our bottles are also fully recyclable and can comingle with the existing recycle streams.

A common question that I get asked is if we have recycling and everything is “potentially” recyclable, what do we need biodegradable bottle for?  This is a very good question, and the answer is that we need both!  Recycling is a GREAT solution and provides a means for using less fossil fuels, especially with close-loop recycling.  This is where bottles that were used for such products as water and soda go back into making more water and soda bottles.  This keeps the carbon in the loop and minimizes the need to use virgin plastic material.  For open-loop recycling such as what we mostly have today, bottles used for water and soda go into making products that can’t or aren’t recycled again.  This process is also called down-cycling and those products mostly end up disposed of in landfills.  The recycle rate in the United States is quoted at roughly 26% although this rate does NOT include the billions of recyclable bottles that are used for shampoo, soap, hand sanitizer, etc; PET recycling is really focused on specific water and soda bottles (see animation).  If you were to include all possible PET bottles that “could” be recycled the recycle rate in the US would be closer to 5%.

A report was recently published stating that recycling only begins to have a positive environmental impact once rates of 50% or higher is achieved.  So why is it a better environmental solution to have both biodegradable and recyclable?  It is going to take us decades to get recycle rates up to the 80 – 90% range, until then are we ok with continuing to contribute to the MASSIVE global plastic pollution problem or do we start to do something today that will fit in with the existing goal of recycling, prevent the problem from getting bigger and provide some positive benefits along the way.  ENSO Bottles is a solution we have available to us today, many brands are using the bottles which can be found in thousands of retail locations.  The bottles fully integrate into the existing recycling infrastructure and for those BILLIONS of bottles that end up in landfills, the will naturally biodegrade in biogas and soil.  And, the biogases can be used, and is being used at hundreds of landfills to create clean energy thus offsetting the need to use additional fossil fuel for electricity.

Note:  In 2005 is it estimated that we purchased over 30 billion water bottles alone.  That same year we recycled 12% with the remaining 25 “B”-illion going into the landfill.  That is the equivalent to 845 bottles per second.  Given an average 16.9oz bottle that would be 24 cubic feet per second or in other words, the room you are probably sitting in would take approx. 72 seconds to fill from floor to ceiling.  So by the time you read this blog and watch the animation you would be swimming in water bottles.  That’s just for water bottles, now imagine including soda, shampoo, soap, juice, cosmetics and all the other dozens of industries using plastic bottles.  It is truly mind boggling.

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.

Now Schraub is looking to build three more bottling plants in Texas to expand his business and capitalize on the business model he’s refined.

“We need to broaden this,” he said. “We’ve done very little advertising, and it’s amazing how the sales have escalated very fast.”

Texas Rain is already sold at Central Market, Whole Foods Market Inc.’s (Nasdaq: WMSI) stores and local Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) stores, among others.

Nationally, the bottled water business generated $11.1 billion in sales during 2008. From 1997 to 2007, the U.S. per-capita consumption of bottled water more than doubled from 13.5 gallons per year to 29 gallons, according to the Virginia-based International Bottled Water Association.

But the sharp increase has created millions of used bottles and a recycling problem, prompting municipalities to consider banning or taxing plastic water bottles. Texas Rain uses bottles that are biodegradable and recyclable. When placed in an environment with microbes, the bottles biodegrade within five years, Schraub said.

Before Texas Rain, Schraub was an engineer for a string of semiconductor companies, including Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD), Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) and Austin-based Freescale Semiconductor Inc. In 2006, he founded Natural Renewable Energy with a plan to install solar energy farms. But the prices of solar panels weren’t low enough to make the installation of farms cost-effective.

When Schraub later saw that rainstorm during his drive to Corpus Christi, he realized that customers could subsidize the installation cost by selling the rainwater that runs off solar panels. He then enlisted 14 private investors to pitch in $450,000 to get the business going.

Raining money

In Smithville, Texas Rain’s enormous warehouse is — quite literally — generating business from top to bottom.

The roofs, which cover 50,000 square feet, are slanted to capture rainwater in 11 tanks totaling 140,000 gallons. One inch of rain generates 28,000 gallons, which means Schraub needs just 10 inches of rain annually to produce enough to operate his business.

The Smithville rain is filtered three times before it’s treated with ultraviolet light and ozonation. It is then bottled and labeled just beneath the roof that captured the rain. In September, the start of the bottled water industry’s slow season, Schraub plans to begin installing a bottle-making machine that would enable the Smithville plant to be entirely self-contained by early 2011.

Private-labeled bottles for business are also giving him an unexpected boost. Texas Rain can design and adhere its customers’ labels on site. As a result, area restaurants and other businesses can buy “their own” brand of water for about 58 cents ($14 per case) per half-liter bottle.

The Schlotzsky’s restaurant in Bastrop began carrying private-labeled Texas Rain water in April and now sell 10 cases per month compared with three cases per month of its previous supplier’s water, owner Laura Merritt said. The environmentally friendly bottles were a big attraction. Also, customers like the taste and it gives the restaurant a chance to support another Central Texas business.

“We like to keep things local whenever we can,” she said.

Last month, a company selling bottled water to raise money for University of Texas scholarships also announced plans to market a reusable metal bottle after students protested about the environmental effects of disposable bottles. H2Orange Purified Texas Water, a UT Tower-shaped bottled water company that would raise at least $1 million for student programs, plans to sell refillable, stainless steel bottles. The company is also considering a collapsible, BPA-free, dishwasher-safe version, as well as a biodegradable plastic bottle.

Tom Lauria, spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association, said he’s never heard of any water bottler that directly captures rainwater. Of course, the source of springwater is both rainwater and snowmelt. He also said the environmental concerns about water bottles is unwarranted.

“We shouldn’t penalize people for healthy habits,” Lauria said.

ccalnan@bizjournals.com | (512) 494-2524

by Christopher Calnan

Original Article:  http://www.abjentrepreneur.com/news/2010/08/texas_rain_already_pouring_in_profit.html

“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

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:

Started by, David Scalzo,  a 15 year old Pennsylvanian resident who resides in Scott Township (in Lackawanna County). Back in August of 2006, an idea to start a recycling program in his school led to the launching of a program to help other schools and people locally to go green and help protect our planet. As time passed, David gained the help of Representatives, Senators, and the Governor- and agencies like the DEP, EPA, and ENSO Bottles.

David sent us an  email thanking the entire ENSO company for all their hard work, dedication and commitment to helping others help our planet. David said, “You helped my organization to become strong and helped us achieve so much by allowing us to accomplish a few of our many goals. ”

ENSO Bottles would like thank David for all of his hard work and encourage others to do the same by dropping him a line and thanking him for all of his efforts.

Way to go, David!

Any further correspondence of this matter or letters of congratulations may be made by writing to the following address:

OPERATION: Saving Earth
ATTN: David Scalzo
706 Chapman Lake Rd.
Scott Township, PA 18433

davidscalzo2@gmail.com

www.operationsavingearth.webs.com

PLA is ONLY a industrial compostable material and if used for applications such as bottles, toys, misc packaging, etc have no chance of EVER making it into a disposal environment that is needed in order to mechanically break down the plastic.  When these products make it into the customary disposal methods of recycling or landfills they will wreak havoc on recycling and last forever in landfills.

Our mission is to address and help solve the plastic pollution issue in the world, this legislation will do nothing to move us closer to that goal.  It will hinder innovation and prevent consumers from knowing what is in the packaging material of the products they are purchasing.  We believe a better approach would be to encourage innovation, stop green-washing by requiring any claims to be backed up by scientific 3^rd party testing data using internationally recognized standards board’s testing and require brands to use definitions based on the tests performed.  We believe consumers will understand what it means when companies claim biodegradable, compostable or degradable when using these terms.

On July 26 we joined a group of like minded companies and people to create the Environmental Plastic Coalition to work towards stopping this kind of legislation.  We need your help to let the California legislators know that big business our voices do matter.  We are creators of own reality, making choices that support our reality not ones that disarm it.

Please…. Send an email no later than FRIDAY – August 5^th to: EPC@ensobottles.com with the following:  (all messages will be provided to the coalition lobbyist)

The Assembly Members need to hear from consumers on the following:

1. That you recognize the issue of plastic pollution and that plastic which are biodegradable will help solve the problem we now face.
2. Your thoughts about a system that prevents companies from promoting true green initiatives, especially when science backs up any claims.
3. How you feel about a bill that would ban and fine companies that are paving the way for a more ‘plastic less’ society.
4. Any other thoughts about the issue.

Please end with your name, the city you live in and your phone number.

We thank you for taking the time to write, solving the plastic pollution issue is a very important issue and one in which we are all involved with regardless of whether we like it or not.  We need to work together in order to solve the situation that was created from the past decades.  Doing your part along with people just like you we can and will make a difference and provide a better, cleaner world for the future.

Sincerely,

Danny Clark

President

ENSO Bottles

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

So, if you are taking an active part to keep our world green, let us hear about it.

Langlade Springs natural mineral spring water now available in the Upper Midwest. Langlade Springs, LLC, is introducing a private label program of natural mineral spring water packaged in ENSO biodegradable bottles.

Learn more at: http://www.langladesprings.com

Nature’s Purest Spring Water is now packaged in ENSO bottles. Nature’s Purest Spring’ Water comes straight from the springs hidden away in the Majestic Blue Ridge Mountains.

Learn more at: http://www.naturespurestsprings.com

Check it out!

For green marketing to be effective, you have to do three things; be genuine, educate your customers, and give them the opportunity to participate.

1) Being genuine means that

a) that you are actually doing what you claim to be doing in your green marketing campaign and

b) that the rest of your business policies are consistent with whatever you are doing that’s environmentally friendly. Both these conditions have to be met for your business to establish the kind of environmental credentials that will allow a green marketing campaign to succeed.

2) Educating your customers isn’t just a matter of letting people know you’re doing whatever you’re doing to protect the environment, but also a matter of letting them know why it matters. Otherwise, for a significant portion of your target market, it’s a case of “So what?” and your green marketing campaign goes nowhere.

3) Giving your customers an opportunity to participate means personalizing the benefits of your environmentally friendly actions, normally through letting the customer take part in positive environmental action.

The world is addicted to plastics! We couldn’t get away from them even if we wanted to and the reality is that plastics are a better solution that the alternatives. Look around from where you are reading this blog post and I can guarantee that you are surrounded by plastics. They are used in our phones, computers, furniture, cars, airplanes, misc items all around our daily lives and to top it off our clothing. The problem is so bad that our oceans are clogging up with bits of plastics killing off wildlife and getting into our food supply. We are literally beginning to drown in our own creation of plastics.

What about recycling? Well, that sounds really good on paper and makes since if we do it right but the reality is that over 84% of recycled plastics in the US are shipped to China and what they do with that material really is not recycling. Most of that recycled material is ending up being incinerated or is downcycled into products that have little chance of being recycled again. Why? Because our recycling infrastructure is mostly focused on what makes money and that right now is #1 (PET) and #2 (HDPE) type of plastic resins usually from beverage type bottles only. Most recyclable plastic falls outside of this category including the #1 (PET) bottles used for other packaging. To make matters worse, there are very few recycling programs that would be successful if not for legislation (bottle bills) and the government subsides. There are a few recyclers out there who really do make a difference and they are taking any and every type of plastic. They work hard at developing markets for the various types of plastics that the majority of recyclers won’t even look at. I commend these recyclers and wish there were more like them.

If we are going to make a difference with our planet and improve things for our children and grand-children we need to start looking at the big picture and incorporate the way we humans use things. Plastics are not necessarily bad but we should look at how we are making them, how we use them and how we dispose of them. Moving towards plastics which are renewable and that don’t infringe on food resources is the right thing to do for both the environment and our health. Being smarter about the way we use plastics will help us generate less garbage and how we handle that garbage is key to a cleaner future. We need to close the loop on plastics, lets recycle them into second and third life products which can be used again and again. All plastics and materials should be biodegradable so that when they reach the end of their useful life we have a way to create a useful products from the waste, such as methane gas which is a source of clean inexpensive energy.

We can all make a difference, it isn’t too late and is actually easy to do. We simply need to make better choices of the products we are purchasing. Simply look for, and purchase products from companies who are packaging their products in earth friendly biodegradable packaging, this will make the market and companies accountable for what they produce.

Boston, MA (PRWEB) June 3, 2010 — Native Waters, a Massachusetts company that produces locally sourced natural spring water in earth-friendly PET plastic bottles, will now be widely available across Eastern Massachusetts, including Metropolitan Boston, and New Hampshire thanks to a distribution agreement with Great State Beverages of Hooksett, New Hampshire and their subsidiary Blue Coast Beverages of Mattapoisett, Massachusetts.

Great State Beverages is one of the leading beverage distributors in New England. The company will offer Native Water to its customers in Eastern Massachusetts and New Hampshire, including convenience stores, supermarkets, restaurants and other venues.

Native Water is bottled in ENSO Bottles, a biodegradable and recyclable PET plastic bottle. Made from 25% recycled plastic the bottles are produced with Ecopure™, an organic compound added to the plastic manufacturing process that allows the bottles to be metabolized and neutralized on a microbial level, completely breaking down the plastic. ENSO bottles maintain the same physical properties and strengths as existing PET plastic bottles yet provide a more shelf stable and practical solution than starch-based PLA materials and oxo-degradable plastics. The bottles are biodegradable in both anaerobic and aerobic environments and can also be successfully mixed with standard PET plastic recycling.

Link to full article: Native Waters Signs Distribution Agreement with Great State Beverages.

“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.”

To collect the rain, they have a 50,000 square foot capture facility. The facility gets about 27,000 to 28,000 gallons for every inch of rain according to officials.

The rain water is bottled and captured in Smithville.

“It’s true rain water. We collect it. We run it through a purification skid and bottle it and then distribute it,” Schraub said.

Eventually they want to process the bottles in Central Texas as well.

“We’re going to put in our own bottle making machines and we’ll be able to manufacture our own bottles, as well, at this location. And, hopefully, we can expand to other locations around Texas,” Schraub said.

Special Thanks to News 8 in Austin for this great segment. Check it out:

http://news8austin.com/content/271060/go-green—-rainwater-bottled-in-central-texas

That’s where Ice River Springs, a bottled water company headquartered in Feversham, Ontario, is converting an industrial building into a PET recycling plant. This makes Ice River Springs the first bottled water company in North America to self-manufacture its own resin.

“Our goal,” says Ice River Springs president Jamie Gott, “is to eliminate our dependency upon foreign virgin PET resin by self-manufacturing recycled resin from baled post-consumer plastic purchased from Municipal Recycling Centres.”

Some pretty specialized equipment is required to purify and flake the PET that comes in from Canada’s Blue Box system. Equally specialized is the gear that converts the flake back into a food-grade product that can take the place of virgin PET. Ice River Springs is betting on AMUT S.p.A. for the sorting, cleaning, and flaking part of this process and Starlinger for the purification of the clean rPET material. According to Gott, the AMUT system was judged most cost-effective and used a minimum amount of water, chemicals, and energy. Starlinger, he adds, has a Solid State Poly-condensation technology that effectively purifies PET flake and keeps energy consumption and cost to a minimum. The Starlinger system converts flake to PET pellets, which are then used to injection-mold preforms for the next generation of water bottles.

In addition to bottling its own water under its own brand, Ice River Springs also sells preforms to a major North American soft drink manufacturer in the U.S. Should that soft drink manufacturer convert to rPET preforms, the number of PET bottles made from 100% rPET would rise considerably. No wonder Ice River Springs’ long-term plan includes more than 60 new full-time employees supporting the new initiative.

What’s fascinating about the new facility in Shelburne is the number of environmental benefits that ripple outward from it. For example, the bottle-to-bottle recycling process uses less energy than it takes to produce virgin PET from fossil fuels. In addition, since most virgin PET comes from Asia, the Shelburne plant will reduce consumption of fuel formerly required to bring PET from Asia to Shelburne. Moreover, Ontario recyclers will no longer need to sell their baled PET to Asia, further reducing transport-based fuel consumption. And finally, purchase of baled PET on this scale in Ontario will provide a stable demand for baled post-consumer plastic. This in turn will stabilize prices, make recycling centers more financially feasible, and will help to promote recycling and keep plastic bottles out of landfills.

Ice River Springs isn’t the only one pushing the boundaries of closed-loop recycling. Since last October, Global PET in Perris, CA, has been washing, grinding, extruding, and thermoforming PET into clamshell packages using nothing but post-consumer recycled PET. Called the Bottle Box, the innovative container has been immortalized in a YouTube video whose enthusiasm is positively infectious.

If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out at www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRPYccEXt-8. Making the Bottle Box project more intriguing is that Global PET received a grant of nearly $7 million from the state of California and established a 10-year partnership agreement with the Plastic Recycling Corp. of California for 60 million pounds of discarded PET bottles.

“The amazing grant and our partnership with PRCC has really provided us with a competitive advantage and has put us one step ahead,” says Nadim Bahou, Global PET president.

Hats off to Bahou and Gott. Efforts like theirs help stem the avalanche of negative publicity that packaging too often attracts and restore some balance to the discussion of packaging’s role in society.

Published in Packaging World Magazine, April 2010 , p. 7

Written by Pat Reynolds, Editor

April 17, 2010

• Original PRWeb article: On Earth Day and Every Day, Native Waters offers Earth-Friendly…

- Perceived as a healthy alternative to bottled soft drinks and other beverages, bottled water is now the second largest bottled-beverage sold in the U.S. market, representing more than 8.7 billion gallons of water. Yet only 30% of all PET plastic bottles are recycled, leaving 70% of these bottles in landfills or incinerators.

April 22, 2010 is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, a call to action for people to renew their commitment to conserving and protecting the Earth’s resources. For consumers looking for more earth-friendly products, Native Waters is a natural choice. This Massachusetts-based company produces locally-sourced bottled water packaged in biodegradable and recyclable bottles, a viable alternative for bottles that end up in the landfill.

‘Earth Day is the perfect time to for individuals to adopt environmentally-friendly habits,’ said Rodger Cohen, co- founder of Native Waters. ‘We still believe that recycling is the best solution for the PET plastics that are used in bottled water. However, with 70% of these bottles currently ending up in landfills, Native Water is a practical alternative that can help preserve our planet.’

Native Water is bottled in ENSO Bottles, a biodegradable and recyclable PET plastic bottle. Made from 25% recycled plastic the bottles are produced with Ecopure, an organic compound added to the plastic manufacturing process that allows the bottles to be metabolized and neutralized on a microbial level, completely breaking down the plastic. ENSO bottles maintain the same physical properties and strengths as existing PET plastic bottles yet provide a more shelf stable and practical solution than starch-based PLA materials and oxo-degradable plastics. The bottles are biodegradable in both anaerobic and aerobic environments and can also be successfully mixed with standard PET plastic recycling.

To add to the sustainability of the bottled water, Native Waters sources all water locally in the Berkshire Mountains in Western Massachusetts. The water is naturally filtered through layers of sand, clay, gravel and rocks before reaching the surface source. Native Waters then uses local distributors to send the product throughout New England, eliminating long trucking routes and minimizing the carbon footprint of the bottled water.

Native Water is available in both 500 ml and 700 ml sizes. The product is available at select retail stores, restaurants and colleges throughout Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire. Native Water is distributed by Sysco, ghousen of Brattleboro, VT, Nasiff Fruit Company of Fall River, Mass., Great State Beverages of Hooksett, NH, Blue Coast Beverages of Mattapoisett, and Thomsen Food Service of Providence, RI. For more information on where you can find Native Water, visit http://www.earthfriendlybottle.com.

Native Waters, LLC
Native Waters, LLC, was founded in 2009 by Steven Nasiff and Rodger Cohen. The company was founded to provide sustainable product solutions for the beverage industry using the latest technology and a local approach towards improving the environment for current and future generations. To learn more about Native Water in the ENSO biodegradable bottle, visit http://www.earthfriendlybottle.com or call 877.228.0711. Native Waters can also be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nativewaters.

About ENSO Bottles
ENSO Bottles, LLC, of Phoenix, Arizona is an environmental company dedicated to creating ‘Bottles for a Healthier Earth’. ENSO bottles are an environmental solution designed to biodegrade in anaerobic or aerobic environments leaving behind biogases and humus. ENSO bottles with EcoPure have been 3rd party tested and validated for biodegradability and recyclability using ASTM standards. To learn more about how you can help to reduce plastic pollution and improve our environment visit ENSO on facebook, www.facebook.com/ensobottles or contact ENSO Bottles at www.ensobottles.com or call 866.936.3676

Media Contact:
Native Waters
ERIN CALLANAN
617-905-6866

During this same period of time the environmental groups were pushing really hard to get everyone to stop using paper bags.  The question paper or plastic was asked for many, many years whenever going through the checkout isle.  It got to the point that choosing paper would result in strange stares and looks from others in line.  We all went to plastic in an effort to “save the trees” so that this precious resource wouldn’t be gone for future generations.

Some thirty years later we are all more educated about our planet and wanting to do the right thing.  But what is the “right” thing?  Is it enough to recycle?  If you spend any time online looking up plastic pollution you will see thousands of pictures of our planet being choked from plastic pollution.  It is so bad in the oceans that there are five separate gyres which are giant areas where plastic and other debris has accumulated.  The Pacific Gyre, located between Hawaii and Alaska has been reported as being the size of Texas (that’s pretty big).  This area has about 5x the amount of plastic than wildlife.  Much of the plastic has broken down into smaller pieces and is being mistaken as food by birds and fish.  If we are doing such a great job with recycling why is this still happening?

I believe it is time we start to hold ourselves accountable and begin by asking the tough questions.  It is real easy to feel like individually we are not contributing to the plastic pollution issue because we feel so good about recycling.  Don’t get me wrong, recycling is absolutely vital to being better stewards of our planet’s resources.  However, when we really look into recycling we find that it is a word being used more to make us feel better about the situation than a solution to the actual issue.

Let me ask you a question, do you know where that packaging material goes after you place it into the recycle bin?  I think we would all like to believe that it goes into making another similar product that will then be recycled again and again, keeping the cycle going.  The truth is that what happens to that recycled material differs greatly from where you live.  After 30+ years of promoting recycling there are still large portions of the United States which don’t have recycling facilities available to business and consumers.  For those consumers and businesses which do have access to recycling, there is usually a specific kind and type of plastic, glass or paper which is accepted for recycling.  Over 80% of all the plastic in the world ends up in landfills, marine environments or as pollution.

In 2009, 84% of all plastics recycled in the US were exported to China.  Once it arrives in China the use of those plastics will vary greatly, with the worse being incinerated for the creation of electricity.

What does this mean for recycling?  Well, it means that our idea that a bottle placed into a recycle bin which makes us feel really good is not really being used in a way that we believe it is or should be.  As environmental stewards, we should be concerned and interested in making the system better.  We should get involved and support companies, legislation and recyclers who emphasize using recycled material in their second life products which can then be used again a third, fourth, fifth and so on.    This would help to create more demand for recycled material in the US and keep recycled material from being shipped overseas.

New York, NY (April 6, 2010)– A newly released life-cycle inventory of single-serving soda containers concludes that PET plastic bottles offer a better environmental footprint than aluminum cans or glass bottles by using less energy, generating less solid waste, and creating significantly fewer greenhouse gases.

The cradle-to-grave study, conducted by Franklin Associates for the PET Resin Association (PETRA), compared total energy, solid waste and greenhouse gas emissions per 100,000 ounces of soft drinks packaged in typical 20-oz PET bottles, 8-oz glass bottles, or 12-oz aluminum cans.  The PET bottles showed appreciably lower numbers across the board.

Most notable were the lower greenhouse gas emissions for the PET bottles, which registered 59% less than aluminum and 77% less than glass.  Franklin calculated the greenhouse gas emissions for the PET bottles at 1,125 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalents, compared to 2,766 lbs for aluminum and 4,949 lbs for glass.

Read full article: http://www.petresin.org/news_GreenLighttoPETBottles.asp

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.

Those in attendance at the Rotaract Pre-Convention 2009 in Birmingham, England came from backgrounds including medicine, law, the U.S. Foreign Service, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, American Civil Liberties Union, Peace Corps, German Luftwaffe Office Corps, European royalty, consulting firms, investment banking, and a plethora of small businesses started by Rotaractors themselves. Rotaractors will be shaping the world, and they’re passionately involved in Rotary International to make that happen.

Rotaract needs the support of local Rotary Clubs, but doesn’t require hand-holding. A successful Rotaract Club must function independently – guided by Rotarians, but led by Rotaractors. Rotary Clubs can work to develop Rotaract Clubs by first identifying a solid group of sociable young leaders who are able to motivate and inspire both friends and strangers. These people are most frequently the children of Rotarians or those that have participated in Rotary youth programs. Once a core group has been established and the new Rotaractors have a basic understanding of Rotary International, service projects should become the primary focus. From there Rotaractors can participate in local and international service projects in partnership with other clubs and organizations, attend conferences around the state, country and world and even take an active role in the leadership of the global organization.

Each Rotaract Club develops on its own and finds its own causes to support. The Rotaract Club of Phoenix, currently the only Rotaract Club in District 5490, is best known for its annual Water Drive benefitting St. Vincent DePaul and other valley homeless shelters. During the summer of 2009 the club raised and donated 17 tons of bottled water (20,000 bottles) to valley homeless shelters; enough water to support valley shelters for an entire month. This project is possible thanks to the generous support of Rotary Clubs throughout Arizona, the Rotaract Clubs of ASU and East Valley and ENSO Biodegradable Bottles.

Phoenix Rotaract works on service projects throughout the year and has partnered with Project C.U.R.E., Friendly House, and UMOM. Additionally, the Club was recently represented for the second year in a row in Caborca, Sonora, Mexico for the PolioPlus campaign there. Currently, Phoenix Rotaract is working with Bridging AZ Furniture Bank on an estate sale taking place on the weekend of April 30 at the southwest corner of 32nd Street & Indian School Road in Phoenix. The Club has created an inventory system and catalogue of items being sold and is in charge of promoting the event across the Phoenix metropolitan area.

In order to support these projects Phoenix Rotaract is developing a series of fundraisers. The Club is selling tickets to the opening weekend of the Arizona Diamondbacks for the Saturday, April 10 game against Pittsburg. Additionally, the club is planning an outing at the Scottsdale Drive-In for fall 2010 and is developing a volleyball tournament. Supporting these events and Phoenix Rotaract allows the Club to send members to local, national and international conferences, send members to Mexico to participate in PolioPlus projects and supports causes like the Water Drive.

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

Nike’s bottles-to-T-shirts operation is fairly straightforward. Recycled polyester comes from a Taiwanese supplier that cuts up, melts, and spins plastic bottles into a yarn for the shirts. Each shirt will consist of 100% recycled polyester and approximately eight plastic bottles. The shirts are slightly more expensive to produce than standard jerseys, but Nike claims that the costs ultimately even out because less material is needed for production. And on the outside, players and fans won’t be able to tell the difference between the bottle-filled jerseys and the regular polyester shirts worn by non-Nike teams.

Environmentally savvy soccer lovers will also have the chance to check out Nike’s shirts–the brand is using 13 million plastic bottles to produce jerseys for fans. All in all, Nike’s initiative will stop 254,000 kg of polyester waste from being dumped in landfills.

Nike isn’t the only company to manufacture shirts out of plastic bottles. Coca-Cola’sDrink2Wear shirts are also made out of recycled bottles, and Patagonia started manufacturing fleece out of post-consumer bottles in 1993 with little fanfare. But by featuring the technology at sporting events watched by millions, Nike is letting the world know that the technology is worth our attention.

Original Link: http://www.fastcompany.com/1563572/world-cup-shirts-to-be-made-out-of-recycled-plastic-bottles

BY ARIEL SCHWARTZThu Feb 25, 2010

Beaver Falls and Greenwood , British Columbia won silver and bronze respectively. Although both are first time entrants, British Columbia has an almost permanent place in the tasting’s municipal winners circle.

The Canadian – U.S. rivalry was reversed in the purified category when Kittiwake Pure from Newfoundland topped Crystal Mountain Water of Huntsville, Alabama. Hometown water, Berkeley Springs took the bronze.

Although bottled water came literally from all over the globe to compete, the top five medalists were all U.S. waters including two bottling Berkeley Springs water. Judged Best Bottled Water in the World was Ecoviva, Roscommon, MI which also boasted a 100% biodegradable bottle. The silver was won by Eldorado Natural Spring Water, Eldorado Springs, Colorado. International entrants included for the first time water from Brazil and China as well as ones from New Zealand, Macedonia, Italy, Japan, Bosnia and Ecuador. A total of 49 bottled waters were tasted.

Two special awards were given this year to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the water tasting. The Bottled Water Web is honoring Sweet Springs Natural Mountain Water of Gap, WV, winner of four gold medals, a feat that has not yet been matched. The American Water Works Association is presenting a top winner award to Mission Springs Water District of Desert Hot Springs, California for their six medals won over the years. Marilyn McKay, Administrative Officer of Mission Springs, was on hand to accept the award.

More than 200 people watched at the Country Inn in Berkeley Springs on Saturday night as a dozen media judges spent hours tasting more than 125 waters from 24 states and ten foreign countries. There were 44 municipal waters from 12 states and Canada. “We have double the number of cities and towns competing in the tap water division from last year, “ said Klein Rone, “and seven former gold medalists.

Bottled water came literally from all over the globe to compete, including for the first time water from Brazil and China. The Brazilians and Chinese competed against other international waters including those from New Zealand, Macedonia, Italy, Japan and Ecuador as well as long time festival favorite, Bosnia. A total of 49 bottled waters were tasted.

Winning sparkling waters were all international with Dobra Voda of Kratovo, Macedonia taking the gold and previous gold medal winner, Canadian Gold of Marchand, Manitoba coming in second.

Arthur von Wiesenberger, author and founder of BottledWaterWeb.com once again served as the event’s watermaster. “This is the longest running and largest water tasting in the world,” he said. “The grandaddy of them all.” .” Klein Rone was delighted at the crowd and the array of water officials who came from as far away as China and British Columbia to attend the event.

The crowd was interested in the peoples’ choice packaging competition where it was their votes that chose which of the 17 entrants was the most alluring. “This is another record number,” said Klein Rone. The overwhelming favorite was the silvered column of Bling from Los Angeles. “We’re especially pleased with their win since they have our gold medal on the bottle,” said Jeanne Mozier, one of the event founders. Within the winning Bling bottle is previous gold medal water from English Mountain in Tennessee.

Conclusion of the daylong water tasting is the famed “water rush” where the audience is invited to take home hundreds of bottles of water sent as part of the judging. “I spent about nine hours arranging all the waters in a display,” said Mozier. “The crowd spent less than ten minutes making it all disappear. It’s like a Tibetan sand mandala,” she laughed. Most popular among “rushers” this year was the cobalt blue glass bottle of Climax water. The champions of the rush were a couple who travel from New York City every year especially for the water tasting.

The dozen media judges selected by Klein Rone from print, radio and the Web were instructed by von Wiesenberger to look, sniff and taste each water under guidelines like those in a wine tasting. The waters were rated for each attribute including appearance (it should be clear – or slightly opaque for glacial waters), aroma (there should be none), taste (it should taste clean), mouth feel (it should feel light), aftertaste (it should leave you thirsty for more). Waters were tasted in four separate flights over two days.

The 21st annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting is scheduled for Saturday, February 26, 2011. For more information on Berkeley Springs or its water tasting, call 1-800-447-8797 or check online at www.berkeleysprings.com.