Loop Sports Bottles and the Zero Waste Future

We're looking at the new Loop Sports Bottle, made in the UK at a revolutionary closed-loop production facility. Read on to find out how it's constructed and the model it provides for the future of sustainable manufacturing...

Closed Loop Production

The Loop Sports Bottle is constructed entirely from recycled plastic milk bottles. This ubiquitous consumer packaging is made out of HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) which can be easily and efficiently recycled up to 10 times. In the UK maybe half of our milk containers are currently recycled but that number is slowly growing and the Loop Bottle proves it can be done efficiently and cheaply at scale. So how's it done?

The Loop Bottle is the brainchild of one of our most innovative and forward-looking British suppliers. They've created a closed loop, zero waste production facility that's powered solely by renewable energy, i.e. a factory that operates without waste and relies entirely on sustainable energy sources to power its operations. Here's what they do:

1. Plastic milk containers are sorted and cleaned at the recycling centre
2. These containers are shredded using a mechanical (non-chemical) process and then melted down into granules 
3. The granules are turned into the new Loop bottles using a high-efficiency Injection Blow Moulding process that consumes 30% less energy than traditional methods

A Tried And Tested Design

The Loop Bottle is styled on the popular Olympic sports bottle, with a flip-top lid and comfortable no-slip grip. The Olympic is a tried and tested design that's extremely popular as a branded promotional item. The Olympic comes in a range of colours and sizes but, so far at least, the Loop Bottle comes in only one size, 500 ml, the same size as the best selling Olympic model. The Loop Bottle also comes in only one default colour, a silvery white tone the manufacturer calls "Recycled White". This one-colour approach is partly driven by the effort to minimise all processing (and hence the bottle's environmental footprint), and partly for ease of recycling when the Loop itself comes to the end of its life. However the Loop does currently offer a choice of around 10 bold stock colours for the lid. 

Decorated Your Way

One upside of the Loop's clean, white colour scheme is it provides a great canvas for your branding or message. Your custom design can be applied as a precision screen print, or an award-winning full-wrap digital print. This allows us to reproduce even the most intricate, multi-coloured logos and photo-realistic imagery.

More Products To Come

Although the Loop Bottle is the first product to come out of this closed-loop factory, it likely won't be the last. The plastic granules derived from the milk bottles can potentially be used for a whole host of applications in future. HDPE is a versatile plastic that's light but durable, resistant to corrosion and sun damage, food-safe and fully recyclable. As more of these greener products are developed we'll be sure to add them to our growing roster of more sustainable merchandise.

Investing In British Innovation

The development of the Loop Bottle closes the price gap still further between mass produced recycled products and equivalent items conventionally made with virgin materials. There is still a small premium to pay on a recycled product like this one (perhaps 10% at time of publishing), but remember that money is being invested into new systems and technologies that should ultimately bring down the price for closed loop manufacturing until it becomes the cheapest option. So choose the Loop Sports Bottle for your campaign - it's a great way of investing in British innovation, the UK economy, and a more sustainable future for everyone!

We're attaching a product sheet below with some more information, or click the Loop Sports Bottle below (under Related Products) to visit the product page and place an order. Lastly, we have a large and fast-growing range of products from suppliers who focus on eco-friendly production:

Click here to see more Sustainable Merchandise