Packaging and recycling
Packaging allows us to conveniently bring our water directly from the source to you, preserving the natural mineral water’s quality–but we believe it shouldn’t come at the expense of the environment. After all, our water couldn’t exist without a healthy environment.
Adopting a circular model
Some mainstream bottling systems are still primarily linear—raw materials are used to make packaging, and after the product is consumed, the packaging is thrown away, adding new waste to the environment. Simply put: this model isn’t sustainable.
Because we’re committed to protecting and nourishing the health of our planet and its people, we are playing our part to accelerate the transition from a linear to a circular economy of sustainable packaging. This means eliminating packaging we don’t need and innovating to create recyclable packaging that can be safely reused again and again so it remains part of the circular economy and does not become waste or pollution. In January 2018, we pledged to become a circular brand and transform our packaging to make all our plastic bottles* from 100% recycled PET (rPET) by 2025.
In 2019, we introduced our first 100% recycled PET bottles at The Championships, Wimbledon as part of a pilot of circularity as a solution to plastic waste. We worked together with the All England Lawn Tennis Club to implement a range of initiatives to encourage recycling at the event. This included replacing our logo with the message ‘I Recycle’ and working with the All England Lawn Tennis Club to increase the numbers of recycling bins around the grounds. All bottles collected from recycling bins were made into bottles again! The UK environmental charity, RECOUP independently oversaw this process.
*excludes label and cap
Building blocks to becoming circular
LINEAR ECONOMY
In a linear economy, packaging is formed from a raw material, used once, then discarded as landfill waste. At evian, we’re striving to move away from this approach. All our bottles are already 100% recyclable but we are striving for more.
CIRCULAR ECONOMY
In a circular economy packaging resources are kept in use for as long as possible and recovered and regenerated after each use. At evian this means we aim to create recyclable packaging made from recycled content to become a circular brand.
Packaging
Polythene terephthalate (PET) bottle recycling has allowed our plastic bottles to be 100% recyclable since its introduction in 1992, but we won’t stop there. Currently, at least 25% of each evian bottle* is made from recycled plastic (rPET), in September 2020 we will be launching single 50cl*, 75cl* and 1.5* litre bottles made from 100% RPET** and we’re on a mission to make our plastic bottles* from 100% rPET by 2025.
*excludes label and cap
**Only bottles with the label (Bottles made from bottles) are made from 100% recycled plastic.
We are confident we can become a circular brand with the help of breakthrough technology companies like Loop Industries. They’re pioneers in their own right and have developed a technology that enables large scale plastic recycling, transforming all types of PET plastic waste into the high-quality our recycled bottles require.
As you can see, working together has provided shared value; thus, we’re on track to meet our sustainability goals and circular ambitions.
For more information on Loop Industries click here.
Reducing plastic bottle waste in nature
We seek zero plastic bottle waste and want to do our part to keep our bottles out of nature. That’s why we got onboard with The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch non-profit start-up that uses its technology to rid the oceans of plastic.
Together through our parent company Danone, we joined this project in 2018 as a research partner in Indonesia to analyse waste captured by The Interceptor™, an exciting new technology that aims to stop plastic waste from entering oceans by intercepting it at rivers. The Interceptor™, which is 100% solar powered and uses the natural forces of the current, aims to extract up to 50,000 kgs (just over 110,000 lbs) of plastic waste a day from the 1,000 most polluted rivers around the world. But what happens to the collected waste, you ask? We have helped analyse and categorise the collected debris to gain a better understanding of the challenges that caused it to enter rivers in the first place, so we can prevent it from ending up there going forward.
Working with local communities
We’re trying our best, but we can’t do it all alone. That’s where community comes in. We’re working with governments, recycling industry partners, and consumers all over the world to increase the collection and recycling rates of plastic bottles. For example, in the UK, we work with Hubbub, a UK sustainable behaviour change agency, to understand littering behaviour. (www.hubbub.org) We have supported a large-scale trial in Leeds: ‘Leeds by Example’ to boost recycling on the go in the city. The trial uses a variety of recycling infrastructure and awareness-raising interventions to test impact on behaviour change, enabling us to explore solutions that could be rolled out in the future. The trial saw recycling rates almost triple in the city centre, from 17% to 49% with a reach of over 18.8m on social media and 87% of people questioned stating that they’d seen something of the campaign. In 2020, Danone Waters continued to support the recycling on the go trials that expanded to Swansea and Edinburgh, building on learnings in Leeds to increase on the go recycling rates in more cities. We will keep identifying and supporting recycling solutions to ensure bottles are recycled properly, reducing dependency on newly created plastic while generating a reliable supply of recycled plastic.
When it comes to packaging innovations that protect the health of the planet and people, we’re partnering with innovative brands like Soma and visionaries like Virgil Abloh to create forward-thinking yet practical designs for the future.
(re)new
A combination of innovation and sustainability: evian (re)new is the first in-home evian water dispenser. Made of a collapsible 5L evian ‘bubble’ which incorporates new generation design thinking - the thin and light ‘bubble’ is 100% recyclable and made of a 100% recycled plastic (rPET) skin which contracts when the water is consumed, taking a new shape after each use. Not to mention, it also uses 66% less plastic compared by litre than a 1.5L bottle of evian*.
“I’ve always been inspired by great design and how it can shape our lives, which is why I’m excited to see evian pushing the boundaries within the design of this disruptive new product that will transform the way we drink evian water at home.”
-Virgil Abloh, evian Creative Advisor for Sustainable Innovation Design.
At the moment, evian (re)new water is only available to 200 selected customers in London and Paris who are helping evian test, optimise, and refine its design. Once it’s up to our standards, we will look to roll-out evian (re)new more widely in the future.
*Compared, per litre of water, to a 1.5L evian® bottle (3.33 x 1.5L evian® bottles).
Soma
Just like us, Soma is a company that strives to reduce their global impact. In fact, they’re a Certified B Corporation®, meaning they’ve earned the right to be included in a group of businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. Not only do they make refillable glass bottles, they’re also continually looking for new ways to solve some of the world’s water challenges, like donating to water projects. To put it simply: we complement each other. Together, we’re aiming for everyone to be more conscious in their consumption without having to sacrifice form or function.
The first product of our collaboration debuted in 2019 when we launched evian x Virgil Abloh refillable glass Soma water bottle, a new hydration accessory for people to enjoy water at home or on-the-go. Virgil’s “Rainbow Inside” evian reusable water bottle was designed to be the perfect on-the-move accessory that can be refilled time and time again.
1992
Since 1992 evian in the U.K. has been 100% recyclable.
2008
In 2008 we first used recycled plastic in the production of our bottles. Since then we have been striving to increase the percentage that comes from recycled bottles.
2019
Launched our first 75cl, 1L and 1.5L bottles with 50% RPET (recycled plastic) in the UK. We launched our first refillable bottle with Soma.
2020
Launched Limited Edition ‘Activate Movement’ collection with Virgil Abloh. In September, we will launch 50cl*, 75cl* and 1.5L* bottles with 100% RPET** (recycled plastic) in the UK.
* excludes cap and label
** Only bottles with the label (Bottles made from bottles) are made from 100% recycled plastic.
Seeking to reduce plastic bottle waste
Accelerating recycling initiatives