Eco For Life™ is the brand name owned by Marco Polo Intercontinental Limited for their environmentally & eco friendly, chemical & toxin free, biodegradable, plastic free spring water bottles made 100% from plant.
Key Brands International Ltd are the official distribution partners for Eco For Life™ throughout the UK and Europe.
Eco For Life bottles are made from 100% Polylactic acid, PLA for short, an annually renewable plant source which means they are free from any artificial chemicals and toxins.
The bottles are 500ml and can be purchased from our website in cases of 24 or from stockists, details of which can be found on our Where to Buy section.
PLA is an organic compound made from dextrose (sugar) which means the bottles are chemical and toxin free alongside being biodegradable and recyclable without detriment to the environment.
It is currently derived from field corn that is already grown for many functional uses. We currently use less than 0.05% of the annual global crop.
No not at all, it can be made from any sugar based crop such as sugar beet, sugar cane or wheat.
The plants are put through a milling process to extract the starch (glucose). Enzymes are added to convert the glucose to dextrose via a process called hydrolysis. Microorganisms then ferment this dextrose into lactic acid. A proprietary two-step process then transforms lactic acid molecules into rings of lactide.
Yes, that is correct. On production of the plant based bottles carbon emissions are reduced by over 60% and we use 50% less fossil fuel compared with production of PET plastic bottles
The plastic free bottles can be put straight into general waste or recycling, they will be sorted at the waste transfer stations. If facilities exist in your area they can go into food or green waste collections.
You can rest easy knowing you are using a eco friendly and biodegradable bottle solution.
Yes, the Eco For Life™ bottle is fully compostable and biodegradable.
In industrial facilities it will take around 6 months, in a good managed home compost heap around 12 – 24 months.
Yes absolutely, as they are chemical & toxin free bottles they present a clean burn fuel and also burning at an intense heat they produce a good energy when sent to ‘Waste to Energy’ sites.
The level of PLA in the recycling stream has to be significant in order to contaminate the PET recycling programme. In order to achieve such levels, we would have to sell 200K bottles per day, collect ALL of them and put them ALL into the PET recycling stream. These days most recyclers use NIR technology which has been tested to eliminate approximately 93% of PLA from the recycling stream. If the PET recycling figures are anything to go by, only 55% of the PLA bottles would make it into the recycling in any case, so we could sell around 5 million bottles per day with 55% recycling collection and 93% NIR sorting without there being any real threat of recycling contamination. By this time, the market and recyclers would be very aware of PLA bottles and have realised that it would make sense for them to recycle PLA as there is definitely a market for it.
No, we don’t use labels, all our plastic free bottles are printed using a vegetable ink.
Currently, 500ml bottles in cases of 24, future plans may include production of 330ml and 1 litre bottles.
You can purchase online or find at your local stockist.
Yes they are, our PLA bottles have been certified as food compliant in accordance with European Food Contact Regulation (EU) 10/2011. We have also had our bottles tested by the Smithers Rapra Group to confirm they are 100% PLA and also biodegradable. A copy of the reports is available on request.
No they are not, but we cannot guarantee 100% that there was no GM crop present when the fields were harvested because of possible cross contamination during wind pollination (known as anemophily). Many of the world’s most important crops are wind pollinated, these include wheat, rice, corn, rye, barley and oats. Any trace will be removed during the process, that’s why we certify our bottles as GM Free.
No, our chemical free bottles are made 100% from plants, therefore no harmful toxins leach into the water.
Occasionaly due to the nature of the plant based product it can leave a minute residue once the cap is unscrewed, this is perfectly harmless and can just be wiped or blown away or kept as a momento.
Our great tasting water comes from a natural spring in Hereford, United Kingdom
Yes the bottles are great to personally refill with still liquids. They are robust and are free from artificial chemicals, also great to hold. Please do not put them in a dishwasher though, they do not like the intense heat.
Yes if you are a business please do contact us about wholesale / trade prices.
