The Planet Bottle is designed to oxo-biodegrade through the inclusion of Reverte additive. What is Reverte and how does it work?

TPB is manufactured with 100% rPET supplemented by Reverte which renders its oxo-biodegradable. Oxo-biodegradable technology has been used for 20 years to biodegrade plastic film and bags and has been legislated by many countries.

There is a movement by countries to eliminate plastic bags – and we believe bottles will follow. Italy has banned plastic bags unless they are biodegradable (see page 5). The Planet Bottle deals with the problem that 72% of PET bottles go to landfill or the environment and are not recycled.

Many bottlers are using increasing proportions of rPET. Does TPB use rPET and does Reverte work with rPET ?

For over a year we have been advocating a total switch to 100% rPET – with Reverte – to deal with the reality that some companies are largely unsuccessful in their weak pursuit of a socially responsible position on recycling and reuse. Non-beverage PET bottles are largely not recycled.

A biodegradable additive is starting to be demanded by the consumer as a necessary permanent total solution. We think that recycling is good, but 100% rPET with Reverte is best.

The inclusion of rPET has led to the opportunity to educate consumers about their roll in closing the recycling loop. How do consumers react to the concept of biodegradable and is their understanding and acceptance growing?

TPB was invented out of the perception that the consumer was beginning to have real concerns on the impact of plastics on the environment. It is generally believed that plastic bottles will last in landfills or the environment for perhaps 1,000 years.

We think that recycling is good, but 100% rPET with Reverte is best

PET plastic bottles were invented only 60 years ago and we already have a problem. The answer is 100% rPET for the 100 billion PET bottles recycled and oxo-biodegradable for the 300 billion not recycled!

Consumers today are educated more than ever, children are assisting them in their purchasing decisions. The educational curriculum in elementary schools in the United States includes knowledge and education devoted to eco-friendly concepts. Consumers are demanding eco-choices when it comes to the decision factor on shelf. They analyse packaging and brand owners have noticed this and are continuously seeking innovative packaging concepts. To reinforce this, we work with brand owners to carry the TPB logo which clearly identifies the greenest choice on the shelf: ‘The Planet Bottle – Bottles that won’t cost The Earth!’

Can Reverte work with plant based PET options?

TPB is manufactured with 100% rPET and is oxo-biodegradable over 10-20 years. The PlantBottle is manufactured from 35% sugar cane and 65% from virgin PET pellets – therefore ‘biodegradable’ over perhaps 1,000 years.

PLA based bottles are growing rapidly. Only the smaller companies can go the road of PLA because of the needs of collection and industrial composting. Likely a positive long-term movement. Availability and price are an issue. We see PLA as a good thing.

What have been TPB’s greatest successes?

TPB’s early successes were predicting the future. Our success stories are coming only from brand owners who are serious and willing to do their homework. As examples: Alberta has a deposit law and 80% recycle rate for PET bottles. A large private label company in Alberta received the exclusive contract for the G-8 and G-20 Conferences in Toronto. We have a contract with a branch of the US Military that wants PET bottles to disappear 10-20 years after they pull out of Afghanistan. We are negotiating to go to 100% rPET with Reverte with a water company in Quebec where the largest competitors have already gone 100% rPET.

Brand owners doing their homework find that 100% rPET is not enough if they are to convince the consumer that they are eco-leaders. TPB is working with brand owners who are eager to be first to market with the greenest bottle on the planet, swaying consumer purchase power from their competition.

What next for TPB?

It is obvious to TPB that the early adopters can have a first move advantage by going to 100% rPET before their competition. TPB has an easy time selling to a competitor who has been trumped by a rival brand that moves to 100% rPET and misses the oxo-biodegradable feature. The biggest impact of TPB will likely come from the non-water category. TPB offers premium brand owners a process or method to enhance their brand by sending a strong eco-message to consumers by packaging or bottling their branded products in containers that have been manufactured with the qualities afforded by oxo-biodegradable technology. From household chemicals, personal care, food and drug, wines, spirits, beverages. Everything PET, everything should become The Greenest Bottle.

Source: Water Innovation Issue: 64

The consumer can buy a case of 35 bottles of 500ml sized spring water at Costco produced by PureLife by Nestle for $2.75 a case or 8¢ a bottle.  A small spring water company doing 10 – 40 million bottles of water annually will pay more than 8 cents for an empty blown bottle before it sells it, fills it or ships it.  Nestle won an Eco Award for their EcoBottle characterized by using 40% less plastic and a smaller cap.  Of course Nestle just makes more money since they buy less plastic.  The EcoBottle is not user-friendly and the cap is not choke or kiddie-proof both, we perceive as long-term problems, however they provide a large group of consumers what they want, that is: cheap and convenient bottled water.  A Box of 12 San Pellegrino carbonated water shipped from Italy to Canada in heavy, elegant glass bottles sells at the discount supermarket for $19.99 or $1.66 a bottle.  San Pellegrino is also owned by Nestle.  San Pellegrino’s eco statement is terrible when you calculate the energy cost to make glass and ship it across oceans however again the consumer gets what they want: Italian water in an elegant presentation that they believe tastes better while they ignore the ECO implications.

The point is: It is all about giving the consumers what they want.  Coke invented the Plant Bottle.  The Plant Bottle is made from sugarcane, a food source.  The Plant Bottle is a PET plastic bottle.  The Plant bottle is 100% PET, 70% made from oil and 30% from sugarcane.  The Plant Bottle is not biodegradable and lasts as long as the petroleum-based PET however a large segment of the population believes that the Plant Bottle is, in fact, biodegradable.

The world’s population wants eco-friendly products and solutions.  There are 400 billion PET plastic bottles filled each year that amounts to 62 PET plastic bottles annually for every single person on the planet.  At 1¢ a bottle, the cost to make a bottle oxo-biodegradable, that amounts to $4 billion.

The population loves that bottles can be recycled into other bottles.  Driven by competitive necessity, competitors to the Big Three will educate the public that bottle-to-bottle PCR (Post consumer recycled) PET plastic bottles are a good thing, especially when they realize the rPET plastic doesn’t require the purchase of foreign oil.

Coke has invested heavily in rPET bottle-to-bottle recycling.  Coke is a large buyer of rPET pellets in China and reputedly is putting rPET in small percentage quantities into their PET bottles in the Chinese market.

In our opinion, the Big Three will move more and more toward rPET PET plastic bottles as the world’s supply of rPET expands.  The competitors to the Big Three and other brand owners whose CEO’s have vision, will soon begin to switch getting a jump on the Big Three in order to gain a competitive edge.  Let’s analyze what’s currently happening in the market place and gauge whether current events are in fact predicting the future:

The facts:

• Coke made in excess of a $60 million investment in the world’s largest bottle-to-bottle recycling plant.  Sandy Douglas, President of Coke, of North America conveyed Coke’s commitment to “recycle and reuse” 100% of Coke’s bottles and cans in North America.  The plant will produce the equivalent 2,000,000,000 bottles.  Coke serves 1.5 billion servings a day.  The scale of the challenge is apparent from these numbers.

• The largest producer of rPET pellets in China is tripling its capacity in 2011.  The Big Three have contracted to buy 100% of the current production of this supplier of 100% FDA food grade rPET pellets.

• Krones, one of the world’s largest developers and supplies of machinery to the bottling industry is introducing a series of super efficient PET washing and flaking recycling equipment.  rPET flakes and pellets can be manufactured at prices less than virgin PET.  All of the output will be produced at prices less than the cost of producing virgin PET pellets when factoring in shipping and energy costs.

• In a press release dated Oct. 21, 2010 NAPCOR (National Association for PET Container Resources) disclosed year to year comparative results for US recycling rates.  Virgin PET pellet purchases were down 4% in 2009 due mainly based on consumer backlash against plastic bottles and the recession.  The use of rPET in food, beverage and non-food containers was up 37% in 2009 based on the desire for “environmentally sound packaging”.  To quote the press release There is a “combination of high demand and an inadequate supply” of rPET.  Capacity will continue to climb to meet demand.

• The Collective Group, a largest UK co-operative has moved to 100% rPET for bottle stating that they will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1,212 tonnes.  They made the switch after a poll of 100,000 members of The Co-operative Food Ethical Policy voted 97% endorsed the policy “to reduce waste and increase recycling” as to priority.

• Eldorado Artesian Springs, the largest seller of Colorado spring water has gone 100% rPET for their bottled water.  On Aug 11, 2010 the company stated:

“Right now, we are a very regional company but the largest seller of Colorado spring water. With our new RPET bottle we feel that we have the opportunity to expand our volume as well as our distribution area”

“Using our RPET bottles, we are able to lower our impact on the environment drastically by keeping plastic out of the waste stream and lowering our carbon footprint. By using 100 per cent RPET, we save 77 per cent of the energy required to produce a virgin PET bottle.”

• Crystal  Beverage Co. of California has introduced Regenerate 100% rPET plastic bottles they state that they “have a 65% smaller carbon footprint than traditional PET plastic bottles”.

Regenerate 100% rPET has produced the following chart:

Our Earth Friendly Bottle.

• TerraChoice has published on Oct 20, 2010 “The Sins of Green Washing”.  Three pertinent statements have been made:

• “There are 73 per cent more green products on the market today than in 2009.”

• “More than 95 per cent of consumer products claiming to be green are guilty of at least one of the “sins” of greenwashing”.

• “Good eco-labeling helps prevent (but does not eliminate) greenwashing – of the products certified by a recognized third-party certification, more than 30 per cent are sin-free.”

• Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) also has gone to 100% rPET with its 60 million bottles per year of RIBENA, fruit juice product.  Their quest for sustainable packaging went from 40% rPET to 100% rPET in October, 2007.

Smoothie drink manufacturer, INNOCENT went from 25%, to 50% and the current 100% rPET in order, we quote: “for a 55% reduction in the overall carbon footprint of their bottles”.

• Naya Spring Water of Quebec, Canada claims to be the first bottled water company to go 100% rPET.  Naya states that they are an eco-responsible company who has reduced their carbon footprint by 30% thru the introduction of their rPET bottle.

• Rainbow Light Nutritional Systems is a vitamin company that has gone 100% rPET for their PET bottles.  A quote from Rainbow President, Linda Rahler “We’re taking a leadership position in reducing the vitamin’s industry’s environment footprint.”

According to the EPA, producing new plastic from recycled material uses only 2/3 of the energy required to manufacture it from virgin raw materials.

The entire vitamin industry will likely follow.

The acquisition of the Canadian operation was consummated for a currently undisclosed purchase price.  The Canadian operation gives WWFG control of approximately $10 million of annualized revenue at the franchise level and significant positive cash flow at the WWFG level.  TPBC is pursuing funding through issuance of a series of (US) $1.2 million in promissory notes with a warrant equity kicker through an exempt market dealer, Sterling Grace & Co (Canada) (416-231-0776) of Toronto.

Patrick Rooney, CEO of The PLANET BOTTLE stated, “The acquisition of the Canadian Sign*a*Rama operations provides the PLANET BOTTLE will significant cash flow and a management team that will provide depth to our talent pool dedicated to accelerate the biodegradation of plastic.  There are signs everywhere and the sign business has proven to grow even in periods of recession.  Commercial signs are 25% made of plastics.  We plan to be a leader in promoting the use of signage made from recycled plastic.  There are 400 billion PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles filled each year, only 100 billion get recycled.  Some of these bottles will build our signs, the other 300 billion we hope to make oxo-biodegradable over a period of 10 to 20 years versus 400 years to forever in a landfill or the environment.”

JR Richardson, President of WWFG stated “The acquisition of the SAR’s Canadian operations and brand supported by our partnership with UFG, a $500 million revenue-based franchisor of multiple concepts globally, will support our vision to become Canada’s pre-eminent franchise services company.  We look forward to growing WWFG into a multiple brand owner and developer of unique franchisable concepts while aggressively supporting the needs of the existing and future Canadian SAR franchisees”.

For more information on WWFG, contact Sandi Gilbert, VP Media and Marketing at sandi.gilbert@worldwidefranchisegroup.com.

Visit Worldwide Franchise Group website for more information.

For an update on its activities on becoming the GREENEST bottle on the Planet please visit www.theplanetbottle.net.  Or follow us on twitter @theplanetbottle.  Or contact Patrick Rooney, CEO by e-mail at prooney@rogers.blackberry.net and he will return your call.

Administrative Office: 1-888-941-9955, 416-941-9955

The PLANET BOTTLE has the world’s only technology based on 25 years of science that will oxo-biodegrade the PET plastic bottle over a programmed period of 10 to 20 years.  The oxo-biodegradable technology was developed by Wells Plastics of the UK.  Wells has a history of operations of 27 years and is considered a world leader in developing masterbatch additives to the plastic industry.  The oxo-biodegradation of plastics is the fastest growing business segment for Wells.

The PLANET BOTTLE website explains the science and the marketing opportunities for the oxo-biodegradable technology globally.

Patrick Rooney, CEO of The PLANET BOTTLE stated, “Pure and simple, we must use the internet and social media such as Twitter to educate our new and potential customers daily.  Investors have the benefit through these mediums to keep a finger on the pulse of the real day-to-day business of the company.  Our business plan is simple, we solicit brand owners to affix our The PLANET BOTTLE logo on the label of their proprietary branded products packaged in a PET plastic bottle.  Our logo denotes to the consumer that a brand owner has adopted ‘The GREENEST Bottle on the Planet’ in order to fulfill eco-responsible standards demanded by the consumer.  There are 400 billion PET plastic bottles filled each year and only 100 billion are recycled, we want to impact the 300 billion bottles annually that go to landfill or the environment.  Our oxo-biodegradable technology would cause the 300 billion bottles currently polluting our planet to return to biomass and CO₂ over a period of 10 to 20 years.  We have an active program to promote The PLANET BOTTLE as the GREENEST Bottle on the Planet.  Our story will be told daily on Twitter.

Follow us at Twitter @theplanetbottle.

For an update on its activities on becoming the GREENEST bottle on the Planet please visit www.theplanetbottle.net.  Or follow us on twitter @theplanetbottle.  Or contact Patrick Rooney, CEO by e-mail at prooney@rogers.blackberry.net and he will return your call.

Administrative Office: 1-888-941-9955