Harrogate Water commits to increased recycled materials in its bottles

The firm, Britain’s oldest bottled water brand, has successfully secured sufficient availability of recycled PET (rPET), to make the environmentally-friendly move.

The amount of recycled PET content, all guaranteed UK post-consumer supply, will match that of Harrogate’s glass bottles, which have been produced with 50 per cent recycled glass content for many years.

All materials used by Harrogate Water are 100 per cent recyclable and none of the company’s waste goes to landfill.

Alongside Keep Britain Tidy it has launched a recycling campaign aimed at raising awareness of the importance of recycling PET plastic bottles.

The Incredible Shrinking Bottle Campaign urges consumers to dispose of their bottles responsibly, by twisting and capping, making them easy to carry to a recycling point or take home for kerbside recycling.

Harrogate Water chief executive James Cain said: “It is not an inevitability that plastic bottles end up in our rivers and oceans.

“We all have a responsibility to ensure that we dispose of our packaging properly and recycle our bottles so that they can go on to become another bottle or other useful product, just as we already do with our cans and glass bottles.

“We shouldn’t think of them or refer to them as ‘single use’; they can have an infinite number of lives.

“Naturally sourced water is the healthiest drink. Harrogate Water is sourced from within a Site of Special Scientific Interest, caring for the environment is in our DNA which is why we have partnered with Keep Britain Tidy to encourage recycling.

“The more we recycle, the greater the availability of rPET and the closer we get to a truly circular economy.

“The introduction of rPET represents a significant investment for the business.