A company working to cut into the plastic bottle market with its paper-based container recently got financial assistance from the state of California.
The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) on May 9 approved a $1 million low-interest loan for Manteca, Calif.-based Ecologic Brands. The company’s eco.bottle has an outer shell made up of 100 percent recycled cardboard and newspaper. Inside the shell is a monolayer PE lining made of 80 percent post-consumer content.
The bottle is used to package personal care, food and beverage, pet care and home cleaning products. It is marketed as a way to reduce plastic waste in areas where no recycling facilities exist.
CalRecycle’s loan will help the company expand production by buying and installing a pulp molding machine, four fiber molds, two liner pouch molds, four integration molds and one spout insertion machine. The equipment will allow it to begin making smaller bottles.
“The expansion will provide the business with greater capacity to process cardboard and waste paper that is destined for a landfill,” according to a CalRecycle memo.
This is the second of two CalRecycle loans to Ecologic. The first, approved in February 2016, totaled $2 million. That money was used to buy automated thermoforming, pulping and integration machines, all of which replaced old manual manufacturing equipment.
