This weekend saw a piece in the Independent on Sunday questioning our trial of PLA plastics (our eco bottle) this year. The thrust of the piece was that PLA is not such a good thing. As you may have read in the blog before, we've now made the decision to move away from PLA and go for 100% recycled plastic across the range. Having looked at all the pros and cons, and talked to industry experts, we think that for our bottles it's better to stick to working with waste material (ie recycled plastic), rather than creating bottles from new materials (even though they are made from renewable resources).
We're always up for a debate and, when it comes to environmental issues, it's usually pretty complicated. Sometimes you try new things out and you don't get it quite right. It's true that the UK isn't quite ready for PLA. Lots of people don't have compost heaps yet. Councils here are just starting to do more composting. When we launched our PLA bottle WRAP (the government recycling body) said it was ok to have small amounts in with PET recycling, and supported the trial at the levels of PLA we'd use in our trial. But the recycling industry are now reporting that they are finding it hard to cope with PLA. We'd definitely checked about the use of GM corn, and knew there was no possibility of contamination from the plastic, so we opted for a scheme where they offset any GM corn with a tonne of non GM corn. If you are ordering in huge quantities, you can make suppliers change the way they behave and that was our goal in the long term. It was a trial after all, and you can't always go to trial with something that is the perfect version of itself.
All we'd really like to say to you is that we'd like to keep being allowed to try new things out. And when we do, we'd love it if you could tell us whether you think it's the right thing to do. We work hard to make decisions we are all proud of, but together we can do this better.
PS. One last thing. Claire's dad put one of our first ever bottles in his compost and it disappeared just fine. Maybe he's got special manure.
I HAVE A SEVERE CORN ALLERGY AS DO MANY PEOPLE HERE IN U.K. SO IF YOU USE CORN BOTTLES FOR SMOOTHIES I WILL NOT BE BUYING THEM ANYMORE
Posted by: NEVILLE CHARLESWIRTH | October 30, 2007 at 04:32 PM
Neville,
the post above states;
a) innocent have decided not to use compostable corn bottles. They believe using 100% recycled plastic is a better option.
b) That when looking into GM corn they found there is definitely no chance of contamination from the corn.
Therefore you have nothing to worry about and can carry on smoothie drinking!
Also remember that it is considered rude and shouty to post all in capital letters.
Posted by: Jon | October 30, 2007 at 05:46 PM
I would be happy with any option that moves away from Tetrapak. Love the smoothies but hate the packaging, the sooner you move forward the better:)
Posted by: paul | October 30, 2007 at 08:39 PM
I must admit to being furious to discover (after reading the Independent) that you had used GM corn. GM for goodness sake! Certainly not what I expected of Innocent and feel poorly let down by this. What else aren't you telling us?
Posted by: flamedhairedtemptress | October 31, 2007 at 02:26 PM
Well, we've all just got to do our best haven't we? It's tough to make the exact right choices all the time. At least you're trying, which is certainly more than can be said for a lot (or even most?) of other companies.
And as far as the GM thing goes, I'm not mad for GM, but there is a lot of crazy hysteria around it isn't there?
You're still my No 1 ethical company
Posted by: Jen | October 31, 2007 at 04:22 PM
I thought the corn bottles were a good idea, especially for people like us who live out in the sticks and don't have a local recycling service. All our waste either goes into our composter or onto the landfill, so this seems like a good idea. The only thing I don't like is the GM thing, I don't understand why everything has to be GM these days.
Posted by: Clare | November 01, 2007 at 12:07 PM
I'm all confused now!!
I just know they're trying and I'm trying to be good and do enviromentally stuff, and that's good enough for me!
Posted by: Catt Smith | November 04, 2007 at 08:52 PM
gosh, some people are never happy. Well done for trying your best
Posted by: Emily | November 08, 2007 at 09:46 AM
Now everything is GM and it is not so bad. Especially for industry it doesn't matter if it is modificated or not. It only makes cheaper bottle but does not harm anything
Posted by: immortallt | October 16, 2008 at 11:09 AM