We Take Sustainability Seriously
Pure Water, Pure Conscience
We love the South Downs, we love our planet and we see it as our responsibility to do as much as we can to reduce our carbon footprint and help to preserve our beautiful region for generations to come. That’s one of the reasons why we are so proud to be one of the first bottled drink companies in the UK to roll out plastic bottles made from 100% recycled materials (called rPET).
From where we stand, it’s simple; we take our responsibilities to the environment seriously so that we protect the very environment that produces our exceptional water. In turn, customers can enjoy South Downs Water knowing they’re doing so in a sustainably conscious way.
What We’re Doing
- We bottle South Downs Water at source, eliminating unnecessary food miles.
- We only use UK based suppliers for bottle and packaging materials.
- We use recycled materials wherever possible at every point in our supply chain.
- We run a successful Greener Delivery Initiative to eliminate unnecessary road miles- further details below.
- All of our bottles – glass and plastic – are fully recyclable.
- We are amongst the first bottled drinks suppliers to use plastic that is made from 100% recycled materials (called rPET) for our 330 and 500ml plastic range.
- We recycle our 19l/11l water cooler bottles in-house and encourage customers and end-users to recycle responsibly.
- Our transport pallets are made from wood and recycled time and time again, our transport packaging is fully recyclable.
And That’s Not All…
Greener Delivery Initiative
South Downs Water’s Greener Delivery initiative was developed and rolled out to reduce any unnecessary road miles and reduce our carbon footprint. Working to our Greener Delivery initiative guidelines, we:
- Work with our customers to increase minimum order quantities and reduce the number of delivery runs.
- Only deliver with our own vans within a 50 mile radius – for the most part to our South Coast community.
- Use haulage networks for orders from further afield. This means deliveries travel on lorries that would already be travelling in the right direction to avoid duplicating a long journey.
Future Thinking
Our eyes are very much focused on a sustainable future and we work hard behind the scenes to revise, improve and innovate our processes and systems to ensure we’re contributing as much as possible to the bigger global sustainability picture. We have lots of exciting plans in the pipeline and can’t wait to share them with you shortly.
What Is rPET?
The Introduction Of 100% Recycled Plastic Bottles, Otherwise Known As rPET, Set Us Apart.
What is rPET?
rPET stands for recycled polyethylene terephthalate (no, we don’t like saying that either!). rPET is created by recycling previously used plastics, including plastic bottles. Once collected, the plastic bottles are sorted, cleaned and transformed into rPET.
South Downs Water is using 100 percent rPET for its 330ml and 500ml bottle ranges which means that all plastic bottles will have already been used at least once before, and removes the need to use new, virgin PET.
Why Did South Downs Water Switch To rPET?
Think globally. Act locally. Recycle responsibly.
We recognised the global need to re-think how plastic is manufactured, used and recycled. Whilst acknowledging that collectively we all have a long way to go, we wanted to help keep plastic in a closed loop system and out of the rivers, oceans and countryside.
South Downs Water is ahead of many competitors, including large multinationals, which are not likely to reach this point until 2025.
How Do I Recycle rPET?
rPET is recycled in the same way as traditional PET – the end user should recycle in exactly the same ways as before.
Why Not Biodegradable Bottles?
We constantly review the latest industry manufacturing processes and products. Having looked into a number of options, we felt that biodegradable bottles, at this time, are counterproductive to achieving wider global sustainability goals.
This is due to:
- The production of biodegradable bottles using a greater carbon footprint than rPET.
- Biodegradable bottles are single use products that cannot be recycled.
- If a biodegradable bottle gets into the recycling stream its material composition will contaminate the entire batch which, in turn, will no longer be reusable.
- Biodegradable bottles don’t address the large volume of pre-existing plastic in the system that is reusable.
- Biodegradable bottles are a relatively new concept and their long-term impact on the environment has not yet been proved.
Why Not Get Rid Of Plastics Completely?
Whilst over 50 percent of South Downs Water is sold in glass or larger bottle formats, there are still cases where plastic bottles are the most practical solution.
- Large scale events
- Concerts
- Beaches – Nearby West Wittering Beach, for example, is unable to use glass due to public safety.
With so much plastic already circulating in the world, we are looking to reuse an existing resource time and time again.
What Is The UK Plastics Pact?
The UK Plastics Pact is an initiative that looks to create a circular economy for plastics. It brings together businesses from across the entire plastics value chain with UK governments and NGOs to tackle plastic waste. The UK Plastics Act champions the move away from a linear plastics economy, where we take, make and dispose of plastic, and towards a circular system where we keep plastic in the economy and out of the natural environment.
Visit the WRAP website for further information.
Spot something you think we could do better? We’d love to hear from you. Head to Contact Us and let us know.