Choose Water, the world’s first plastic-free water bottle, announces the launch of its first wave of bottles. It’s an affordable, sustainable, biodegradable alternative to plastic using naturally derived materials.
Made in Edinburgh and filled with Scottish water from the Cairngorms, the revolutionary plastic-free bottle is fully biodegradable and sustainably sourced from natural materials. Once disposed of, should the bottle end up in either landfill or the sea, the bottle takes just a couple of months (rather than 450 years for plastic) to degrade into a beneficial substance to ocean life. It doesn’t require fossil fuels to produce and is made with completely non-toxic and naturally occurring materials.
The journey that started at the kitchen table of 27-year-old chemistry graduate James Longcroft caught the public imagination and the story quickly became an international phenomenon with interest in the bottle and its story coming from around the globe.
After leaving university James was fortunate enough to spend time in The Gambia, visiting communities replete of clean drinking water. Seeing first – hand how limited access to water hindered socio-economic development and negatively impacted health conditions, it became clear that more had to be done to help. Hit by an acute awareness of our own wastefulness and mindlessness, James’ return to the UK prompted the launch of Choose Water, an ethical bottled water company donating all proceeds to Water for Africa.
Founder James Longcroft says….
“After a year and a half of trial and error, two small fires, an explosion and quite a few minor injuries we have finally done it!
Already inundated with potential clients, we now enter our extended pilot scheme to refine and further develop the bottle and using the public’s feedback to finalise a viable alternative to the PET bottle. Once this term has completed we plan to build our production capacity to several million bottles by the end of 2019. Then just keep growing and growing and growing.”
Once disposed of the bottle takes just a couple of months (rather than 450 years for plastic) to degrade into a beneficial substance to ocean life. It doesn’t require fossil fuels to produce and is made with completely non-toxic and naturally occurring materials.
The bottle’s outer casing and label are made from 100% recycled paperthat has been cleaned and printed with eco-inks. The lining, developed by Choose Water is made from sustainably sourced natural materials is the key to keeping the water fresh and secure and the alloy cap will eventually rust down into metal oxides, naturally occurring minerals.
The 2018 crowdfunding campaign to make the bottles a reality, struck a chord with people from London to China, and the huge wave of public generosity helped Choose Water smash its target of £25,000 in the first 50 hours of launch. The Campaign went on to secure nearly £50,000 of funding and Choose Water’s dual commitment to saving the oceans and supporting to Water for Africa, brought significant support from Sky Ocean Venture’s, Sky’s impact investment vehicle that invests in new ideas and businesses who can help solve the oceans plastic crisis.
With its mission statement to reduce plastic in the oceans and its commitment to support the Water For Africa charity, Choose Water is making a real difference to how we look after ourselves, each other and our planet.
Let’s save the planet one bottle at a time.
Choose Water, not plastic
Poppy Watt