Evian and Volvic bottled water

Bottled water gets bad rap from environmentalists. One of the reasons is that the bottles are made from plastic and only a small percentage of these are recycled. The rest end up in landfill.

The company behind Evian and Volvic - Danone, plans to address this by recycling as many plastic water bottles as it uses in the UK.

At the moment, the bottles are made with 25% recycled plastic. Danone want its bottles to be made from at least 50% recycled plastic within the next few years.

In addition, they plan to recycle one bottle and reuse the plastic for every bottle sold, effectively making the brand 'plastics-neutral' with the intention of becoming truly 'carbon neutral' by 2011.

The company believes it will save up to £250,000 a year, which Danone will commit to environmental projects.

Evian and volvic branded water is readily available from most supermarkets and some local convenience stores.

Tesco Double Concentrated Squash

Princes and Tesco developed double concentrated squash to deliver environmental and consumer benefit via smaller, lighter, more portable pack sizes, leading to a reduction in packaging and less trucks on the road. The new range, called Double concentrated squash involves the end user adding 9 parts water to their squash instead of 4 parts water to 1 part squash. This allows the user to consume the same end product in their glass for half the amount of squash, while using half the amount of packaging. And the great thing is, the bottles are made from 100% recycled plastic (rPET).

In addition to the major consumer benefits of a more convenient and portable pack format, better availability and choice, this new initiative offers major environmental benefits as detailed below:

Environmental Benefits:

Old 3L (76g) moved to New 1.5L (41g)
• 46% packaging reduction.
• 34% reduction in vehicle movements
• Annualised saving of 824 tons of PET.
• Removes need for 13.4m plastic handles.

1L (34g) moved to 750ml (28g)
• 17% packaging reduction (>30% when compared with industry 1.5L bottles)
• 33% reduction in vehicle movements
• Effective PET reduction of 637 tons.
• 100% recycled bottle.

It's a genius invention: The RE:Tie

Do you ever get fed up of those bottles which come with tamper proof plasticky bits? The only thing you can do is bung them in the bin.

Don't fret, as help will soon be to hand with a neat little invention from Peter Martin at Junkk.com, who has created an added twist to turn those useless pieces of packaging into something useful, a re:tie that can be put to use at home and in the garden. Simple, yet effective.

Peter is already in talks with interested parties, so keep your eyes peeled for when his patented invention comes to a supermarket near you.