“The benefit of being label-free is that our new bottle is a circular packaging solution, meaning there is no waste and all plastic is kept in the economy,” says Shweta Harit, global brand vice president at Evian. The brand is aiming to become fully “circular,” with the goal that all of its bottles will be made from 100% recycled plastic, by 2025. Ultimately, it wants every bottle it makes to end up back in the recycling system in a closed loop.
While labels are technically recyclable, some facilities don’t have the infrastructure to handle it; others don’t bother. “The labels are disposed of or used to produce energy,” Harit says. “This is a challenge that we as a brand are constantly working on to resolve.”