Mar 9 2009
AQUAMANTRA Award Winning Premium Bottled Water launches the world's first 100 percent biodegradable-recyclable bottle at the Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, CA in booth 4561.
The AQUAMANTRA ENSO(TM) bottle will be available for shipment to store shelves in May 2009 and that is welcomed news to both retailers and consumers who have felt the pressure from environmental groups and consumers who are concerned about exploding landfills bulging with non-recyclable-compostable plastics. Research done by analysts at Morgan Stanley found that "23 percent (of consumers) say they are cutting back on bottled beverages in favor of tap water or beverages in containers that create less waste."
AQUAMANTRA Founder and President Alexandra Teklak has been on a comprehensive search since her company's inception to find a bottle that complements her Gold Award winning LOHAS brand and meets the needs of conscious consumers and retail partners who want creative solutions for the environmental crisis.
"AQUAMANTRA strongly believes that consumers are entitled to choices as to what water they want to drink, which should include easy opportunities to be earth-friendly. I didn't want to find just any solution, I wanted to find a solution that worked for everyone," said Teklak. AQUAMANTRA consultants and advisors investigated many alternatives including PLA (cornstarch) bottles and found that it wasn't a viable solution for the public; not easy to dispose of and not necessarily the best solution to erasing carbon footprints.
"The reality is that water has to be packaged in a bottle that will not disintegrate on the store shelf in 1-2 years, and that is an issue with the PLA bottle. We investigated the "Oxy- degradables", but there were "big ifs" surrounding it such as an adequate amount of exposure to sunlight for degradation which is not likely in a landfill. Finally, after searching for the right company we found ENSO(TM), who was developing a form of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) which could be recycled and biodegrades within 1-5 years, essentially a form of plastic that enables microbes to eat the bottle as dinner," stated Teklak.
The AQUAMANTRA ENSO(TM) bottles do not leach plastic, are not PLA, are not oxo- degradable, and is a FDA approved "food grade" PET 1 bottle. These bottles maintain the same properties as traditional PET and can be intermingled with standard PET in recycling streams and programs. When the bottles end up in a microbial landfill, (80% of them are) the bottle will break down within 1-5 years into inert biomass and biogas through either an anaerobic (no oxygen, no light) or aerobic decomposition. ENSO(TM) bottles used by AQUAMANTRA are validated through third party ASTM (Associated Standards and Testing Materials) standard tests, an international standards organization. "
At ENSO(TM) Bottles, we are excited to work with AQUAMANTRA. Their awareness and concern for the environment aligns very well with ENSO's environmental mission and provides their customers with not only water with a purpose, but also earth friendly packaging," said Danny Clark, founder of ENSO Bottles. "This is the product that consumers have been waiting for. Now everyone can feel good about drinking refreshingly convenient bottled water again," said Teklak.