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Global Water Brand Evian Wants You To Rethink Plastic

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This article is more than 6 years old.

Ronald Holden

Having nudged public thinking about the nature of water, Evian now wants you to rethink plastic. [See update at the end of this story.]

The world's thirst for water seems unquenchable. Evian, which is owned by the Paris-based multinational food company,  Danone, opened a new, carbon-neutral bottling plant on Lake Geneva last year to expand its production capacity to 8 million bottles a day, virtually all of it bottled in plastic.

Water (natural or purified, fizzy or flat, plain or sweetened) is the most basic beverage in the world. Finding a point of differentiation is key, and Evian sells not just its healthy purity, associating itself with with good health (specifically with healthy championship athletes) by sponsoring golf, tennis, and ski competitions. But the company also recognizes that "healthy" requires environmental responsibility. And "plastics" these days carry a poor report card.

Evian

Evian's new bottling plant on the shores of Lake Geneva is currently at 25% and moving toward 100% recycled plastic for its water bottles. They arrive at the plant as thumb-sized plastic blobs that get inflated and filled on-site.

Evian is planning to make all of its plastic bottles from 100% recycled plastic by 2025, a move that will see the natural spring water brand adopt a so-called "circular approach" to its plastic usage, where plastic is kept within the economy and out of nature. The idea is that all its bottling needs will be met entirely from recycled plastic.

"Evian hopes to inspire a fundamental shift in the way the world perceives plastic," according to a company press release.

Producing plastic bottles normally takes three times the amount of water that's ultimately contained inside of them, according to industry sources. Danone rival Nestlé, which distributes Perrier, is also looking at ways to reduce its "plastic" footprint.

Evian says the idea is to "inspire recycling systems that will evolve plastic from potential waste to a resource."

For example, the brand is currently working with Loop Industries, which has developed a technology that enables a continuous loop for recycling at large scale by transforming all types of PET plastic waste into the high-quality plastic required by Evian.

Through its parent company Danone, Evian will also offset its impact by taking part in a global research mission with a nonprofit, The Ocean Cleanup, which has developed technologies that help rid the oceans of plastic.

UPDATE Jan. 27, 2018: The winners of a worldwide contest to reduce the planet's reliance on plastics were announced this week in Davos. Read the story here.