In September 2007, Innocent claimed a world first by putting four of its fruit smoothie ranges in bottles made from 100% recycled PET and making it onto the shelves before the likes of GlaxoSmithKline's Ribena or Coca-Cola.
Innocent has been trying to use a higher proportion of recycled plastic PET material, and less virgin material, in the bottles for its 250ml smoothies since 2000. Then, 25% recycled PET was the technical and manufacturing limit. In 2005 Innocent upped its use of recycled materials and bottles were made using 50% recycled material.The new 100% recycled PET bottles also use 20% less material overall than the previous generation and Innocent says manufacturing the bottle uses 55% less carbon.Four of Innocent's smoothie ranges - its strawberries and bananas; natural detox: pomegranates, blueberries and acai; pineapples, bananas and coconuts and natural slow-release energy: guavas, mangoes and goi berries - have already been bottled into 100% recycled PET and Innocent plans to switch all its ranges to the material by January 2008.
Jessica Sansom, Innocent’s sustainability manager, explains why using recycled material in its packaging was so important for the brand: “Not only is it a world first, but it means that next year innocent will be saving over one thousand tonnes of C02 which is great news for the planet.”
