Waiakea Water Company’s effort to use degradable bottles is a great achievement. The bottles are made using TimePlast technology that reduces the lifespan of original plastics by nearly 100%; the technology takes the lifespan of plastics from 1500 years to only 15 years. Waiakea is the first company to use bottles made of TimePlast nano-addictive.
Ryan Emmons the CEO and founder of Waiakea water said that two factors have made the realization of this type of bottle take long. The first reason is that many manufacturers have been working to make plastic better and stronger as opposed to making them degradable. The second is the endless and unproductive efforts of making plastic degradable. Waiakea has not approached the challenge from either side; they have come up with a way degrading the plastic chemically instead of leaving the task to nature. The polymer is turned into carbon-based wax which is used to make the bottle. Wax is degradable meaning that the bottle will degrade quickly.
Waiakea carried out 1200 experiments in years to come up with this bottle that has the same quality as plastic but degrades kind of first compared to ordinary plastic. The cost of manufacturing this degradable bottle is less compared to the cost of producing the regular plastic bottles. This new technology can change the whole CPG industry. These degradable containers are also recyclable.
About Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water
Waiakea bottled water entered the market in 2012. They came to the market to compete with beverage companies that had stayed in the market for as long as 50 years. The company has grown by 4000% for the three and a half years that they have been in the market. They started with 2,304 sales in the first year; the sales have gone to 122,400 annually in the subsequent years.
The sales records show that the company’s growth rate annually is 170%. The growth was contributed by tenders that the local distributors signed with the company. Waiakea is currently worth over $10 million.
Waiakea is also partnered with PumpAid, a charitable organization to distribute water to less advantaged communities in Africa. Emmons who is 25 says that they have contributed over 500 million liters to those who are in need.