The number of bottles of water we buy is phenomenal, and all in non-biodegradable
bottles that take literally millions of years to break down. Here's a water
company with a different idea. If it sounds like an advertisement, we apologize.
We can't find any criticism of the company to balance our presentation of
their ideas ...
BELU : guilt free water
We have all heard about the aspects of the bottled water industry
that make us think twice about buying their products. The massive amounts
of non biodegradable waste bottled water produces, the cost in pollution of
transporting the bottles and the fact that so-called mineral water can often
be no more beneficial than bottled tap water, are all important points for
consideration.
However, now there is a bottled water company with a difference. Belu takes
their name from a word describing “the beauty of water, Bella, Bellissimo”.
Not only have they used glass not plastic bottles in the past and give 100%
of their net profits to safe water charity WaterAid, but now they
are producing a 100% biodegradable, commercially compostable, plastic
bottle called the Bio Bottle.
So how did this innovative company come into being? The company has an open,
honest, sustainable feel about it. According to their press release,
Belu was formed in response to a challenge set out by the UN’s Global
Compact, which is a movement to engage the business community into solving
global problems. By sourcing the water in the U.K. (they visited every natural
spring in the hunt for the purest water) Belu greatly reduce long distance
transportation and the related environmental impact. Their press release also
tells us that Belu was set up by a group of friends, environmentalists and
companies interested in using business to make a positive difference. This
group includes Gordon Roddick, John Bird, Ben Goldsmith, ?What If! Innovations,
Clifford Chance and Lewis Moberly Design. NatureWorks® PLA and Planet
Friendly Products helped make their bio-bottle along with BIOTA Spring water
of Colorado, the first beverage company in the world to use corn-based bottles.
The Bio bottle is made from corn (with a ‘magic’ cornulator
according to the Belu website). They can be commercially composted
in just twelve weeks. Their web site also tells us "Bio-bottles
are made from corn but could equally well be made from potatoes, rice, beetroot,
bio-mass or pretty much any carbohydrate or sugar. The corn goes through a
fermentation and distillation process similar to making corn whisky and is
reduced to a monomer called lactic acid (which you can also find in ice cream
and pickles). This lactic acid is then spun, linked into polymer chains and
moulded into bottles." The whole corn to Bio Bottle back to soil cycle,
can take as little as 200 days. If you compare that with the average plastic
bottle degrading time of over 100 years in some cases, you can see there is
a massive difference. Also the actual manufacture of the corn bottles creates
less global warming gases than traditional plastic bottles. The cap cannot
be made from corn as yet, but the bottle is still a huge and positive leap
in plastic technology.
I am sure that all of us who like to drink pure clean bottled water, but
don’t want the Earth to incur the associated environmental costs, will
be glad to know they can enjoy Belu water with a clear conscience. And not
only that, but you will also be helping to bring safe drinking water to those
without it. Every bottle purchased in the U.K. provides someone in
India or Africa with one month’s clean water.
So at last it seems we no longer need feel guilty for buying good quality
bottled water. Not if we buy it in Belu’s Bio Bottle at least! Could
this be beginning of the end for oil based plastics? It seems that it could
well be and that can only be good thing for us and for the planet.
Some Interesting information about the Bio Bottle, Water and Belu:
· What is the
best way to dispose of the Bio Bottle?
· Belu’s
website tells us that we can recycle the Bio bottle with our usual plastic
bottles. It can also be composted at home though it is quite difficult (requiring
the correct temperature and environment), but if you would like a go at it
there is advice on their web site. Belu are also planning to buy back used
bottles from recycling firms to make them into new products. The more bio
bottles in circulation the easier this will be. There should be some products
available around the winter holidays this year.
· The new Bio
bottle is available form Waitrose, Tesco and Fresh&Wild.
· Over last hundred
years two thirds of the world's fresh water has been used or polluted. And
not only that but one quarter of people on the planet live without clean water.
· One of Belu’s
latest project involves digging wells and fixing hand pumps in the Yelekebougou
Commune in Mali. They live on the edge of the Sahara and face constant Water
shortage. The wells mean that the community can spend less time searching
for clean water and more time working and playing.
· Belu is working
on cleaning rivers and streams across the U.K. Their first initiative a ‘Rubbish
Muncher’ on the Thames which will remove 45 tons of plastic bags, bottles
and the odd shoe from the water per year!
· Another project
involves working with students across the U.K. to clean up streams near their
schools. Belu believe that if every school was to clean one stream, pretty
soon our rivers and lakes would be clean too.
· Belu aim to
generate £1,000,000 a year for water projects.
· Belu’s
glass bottles are filled at a source in the remote Shropshire hills and the
Bio Bottles are filled from a source in the Black Mountains.
· Belu also use
some of their profits to plant trees.
Belu Contact Details:
Email: info [at] belu [dot] org
Address: Belu Mineral Water
1 London Bridge
Downstream Building
London
SE1 9BG
Phone: 0870 240 6121
Web address: www.belu.org
