Berry’s Prevented Ocean Plastic Bottle™ Helps Tackle a Global Problem

New spring water range uses the category's first fully recycled ocean-bound plastic bottle¹

One of the global sustainable packaging leaders Berry Global Group, Inc. has partnered with Brookfield Drinks for the launch of a new spring water range in a first-to-market bottle made completely from Prevented Ocean Plastic™ (POP).

It is estimated, that every 500ml bottle of NEO WTR, made using discarded plastic that has been collected along coastlines at risk of ocean plastic pollution, stops the equivalent of approximately 1.7 plastic bottles entering the ocean.² In addition to the POP bottle, both the label and cap are fully recyclable to offer a complete circular solution pack.

Berry Global worked with Brookfield, a drinks sales and marketing specialist, and the filler, to create a custom bottle design in line with the requirements for efficient filling while ensuring a strong shelf presence and convenience for the end-user. The bottle features an embossed NEO WTR logo to maximise branding, along with the eye-catching wraparound label that highlights the bottle's POP origins.

Berry's experts rapidly sourced the POP and provided initial bottle samples for Brookfield to assess. To speed up the project once the final bottle design had been agreed, the mould was created and a pallet of bottles produced for testing.

"We are delighted to have worked with NEO WTR on this very important project," commented Joe Horton, Sales and Marketing Director at Berry Global. "The bottle is an excellent example of how a practical solution can quickly be developed to support NEO WTR's sustainability objectives and tight commercial timings. It also demonstrates how businesses can achieve More Together in achieving their sustainability objectives."

The POP, supplied by Bantam Materials, is a high quality, certified and award-winning recycled plastic material that has been collected from coastal areas at risk of ocean plastic pollution. NEO WTR uses material sourced from Indonesia, the world's second largest contributor to ocean plastic pollution.³

The plastic meets regulatory health and safety standards, is traceable back to source, and can be identified on the bottle through its distinctive triangular logo.

"We are very proud to be the first in the category to bring this type of bottle to market, which represents a massive advancement in packaging for soft drinks," said NEO WTR managing director Nigel McNally.

"Our 100% POP bottle with recyclable cap and label offers an environmentally positive option that actively tackles the growing problem of ocean plastic, but it was imperative that the bottle still delivered a positive user experience as well. Berry Global's contribution has been critical in achieving all our objectives and the company was able to meet the tight deadlines for a successful on-time launch."

NEO WTR natural British spring water is bottled at a source in Cheddar, Somerset. It is currently available in 1500 Tesco Superstores nationwide. NEO WTR has also been listed in 270 Sainsbury's stores.

Find out more about how Berry can provide fast-to-market solutions.

1. Bottle only uses 100% recycled Prevented Ocean Plastic™. This excludes the cap and label
2. Based on an average bottle weight of 20g. Weighing activity conducted in July 2023 within the Prevented Ocean Plastic™ South East Asia supply chain, inclusive of clear/light and light blue material grades, without caps and labels.
3. https://jambeck.engr.uga.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/science.1260352-Jambeck-et-al-2015.pdf