Action highlights water producer's plastic footprint

The producer of Spa is distributing more than 300,000 disposable bottles on Sunday at the "20 km through Brussels" sports event. This annual highlight of distributing single-use plastic packaging falls during "Mei PlasticVrij" (Plastic-Free May) this year. For Conscious Crew and Recycling Netwerk Benelux, this is the motivation to stage a protest against the hypocrisy of the company Spadel.

Interview on VTM

The producer of Spa builds its entire image around environmental friendliness, but at the marathon, they are distributing more than 300,000 bottles that are intended to be thrown away after just a few minutes. This is a harrowing symbol of the single-use sales model, which leads to littering all year round.

If they end up in a public bin, they go to the incinerator. If they end up on the roadside, clearing up that rubbish is paid for by the municipal cleaning services and therefore the taxpayers. If they are not cleared up, they eventually end up in the plastic soup via our waterways.

The organisations are offering people a free reusable water bottle in exchange for a disposable Spa bottle. The organisations have a plan for Monday with the bottles collected and picked up in this way.

At the end of March, Marc du Bois, Managing Director of Spadel, spoke disparagingly about a deposit return scheme. The company, on the other hand, claims that all the bottles distributed are made of 100% recycled material. That is good, of course. But it is ironic that the company has to source the raw material for those bottles from countries with a deposit return scheme. For food safety reasons, 95% of the recycled PET used must come from food applications. This simply cannot be guaranteed through collection with the Belgian blue bag.

With the action, which will continue on Monday 28 May, the NGOs are calling on the company Spadel to drop its opposition and speak out positively in favour of a deposit scheme.

Campaigners bring plastic mountain of waste back to water producer Spa

On Monday 28 May, Conscious Crew and Recycling Netwerk Benelux are bringing hundreds of plastic bottles that Spa distributed on Sunday back to the Spadel headquarters in Brussels. “You forgot your plastic waste yesterday at the Brussels 20 km,” say the NGOs together with a marathon runner to the head of Spadel.

The action on the VTM news (from 37:30)

The action on the VRT News

The action on Bruzz

 This action is part of the Back to Sender campaign by environmental organisation Recycling Netwerk Benelux. With this campaign, the environmental organisation, together with many citizens, is asking beverage producers to give up their lobbying opposition to a deposit scheme.

“The producer of Spa builds its entire image around environmental friendliness, but on Sunday during the Brussels 20 km, they again distributed hundreds of thousands of bottles that are intended to be thrown away after just a few minutes. That is hypocritical,” say the organisations.

Between 300,000 and 350,000 disposable plastic bottles were distributed on Sunday. With this number, you could map out a route of plastic bottles between 49 and 58 kilometres long. That is almost three times the distance of the marathon, or from Brussels to Ghent.

If they end up in a public bin, these plastic bottles go to the incinerator, just as happens throughout the year. If they end up on the roadside, clearing up that rubbish is paid for by the municipal cleaning services and therefore the taxpayers. If they are not cleared up, they eventually end up in the plastic soup via our waterways.

At the end of March, Spadel boss Marc du Bois spoke disparagingly about a deposit scheme. “We do not think it is normal that a company, which builds its image around clean spring water and clean nature, fights so hard against a measure that can keep their plastic packaging out of nature,” say Recycling Netwerk and Conscious Crew. “We therefore ask Spa to speak out positively in favour of a deposit scheme”.

The company, on the other hand, claims that all the bottles distributed are made of 100% recycled material. That is good, of course. But it is ironic that the company has to source the raw material for those bottles from countries with a deposit return scheme. For food safety reasons, 95% of the recycled PET used must come from food applications. This simply cannot be guaranteed through collection with the Belgian blue bag.

In the Netherlands alone, Spadel has an annual plastic footprint of 4,141 tonnes of plastic packaging. Of this, 2,634 tonnes is virgin plastic, according to Spadel’s response to a Greenpeace survey.

Participants in the Back to Sender campaign pick up PET bottles and cans from litter and send them back to beverage producers, asking them to support the introduction of a deposit scheme.

Background: Why exactly are we asking Spadel to give up its opposition to a deposit scheme?

Spadel is the number 1 market leader in bottled water in the Benelux, where it sells its brands Sp

The producer of Spa is distributing more than 300,000 disposable bottles on Sunday at the "20 km through Brussels" sports event. This annual highlight of distributing single-use plastic packaging falls during "Mei PlasticVrij" (Plastic-Free May) this year. For Conscious Crew and Recycling Netwerk Benelux, this is the motivation to stage a protest against the hypocrisy of the company Spadel.

Interview on VTM

The producer of Spa builds its entire image around environmental friendliness, but at the marathon, they are distributing more than 300,000 bottles that are intended to be thrown away after just a few minutes. This is a harrowing symbol of the single-use sales model, which leads to littering all year round.

If they end up in a public bin, they go to the incinerator. If they end up on the roadside, clearing up that rubbish is paid for by the municipal cleaning services and therefore the taxpayers. If they are not cleared up, they eventually end up in the plastic soup via our waterways.

The organisations are offering people a free reusable water bottle in exchange for a disposable Spa bottle. The organisations have a plan for Monday with the bottles collected and picked up in this way.

At the end of March, Marc du Bois, Managing Director of Spadel, spoke disparagingly about a deposit return scheme. The company, on the other hand, claims that all the bottles distributed are made of 100% recycled material. That is good, of course. But it is ironic that the company has to source the raw material for those bottles from countries with a deposit return scheme. For food safety reasons, 95% of the recycled PET used must come from food applications. This simply cannot be guaranteed through collection with the Belgian blue bag.

With the action, which will continue on Monday 28 May, the NGOs are calling on the company Spadel to drop its opposition and speak out positively in favour of a deposit scheme.

Campaigners bring plastic mountain of waste back to water producer Spa

On Monday 28 May, Conscious Crew and Recycling Netwerk Benelux are bringing hundreds of plastic bottles that Spa distributed on Sunday back to the Spadel headquarters in Brussels. “You forgot your plastic waste yesterday at the Brussels 20 km,” say the NGOs together with a marathon runner to the head of Spadel.

The action on the VTM news (from 37:30)

The action on the VRT News

The action on Bruzz

This action is part of the Back to Sender campaign by environmental organisation Recycling Netwerk Benelux. With this campaign, the environmental organisation, together with many citizens, is asking beverage producers to give up their lobbying opposition to a deposit scheme.

“The producer of Spa builds its entire image around environmental friendliness, but on Sunday during the Brussels 20 km, they again distributed hundreds of thousands of bottles that are intended to be thrown away after just a few minutes. That is hypocritical,” say the organisations.

Between 300,000 and 350,000 disposable plastic bottles were distributed on Sunday. With this number, you could map out a route of plastic bottles between 49 and 58 kilometres long. That is almost three times the distance of the marathon, or from Brussels to Ghent.

If they end up in a public bin, these plastic bottles go to the incinerator, just as happens throughout the year. If they end up on the roadside, clearing up that rubbish is paid for by the municipal cleaning services and therefore the taxpayers. If they are not cleared up, they eventually end up in the plastic soup via our waterways.

At the end of March, Spadel boss Marc du Bois spoke disparagingly about a deposit scheme. “We do not think it is normal that a company, which builds its image around clean spring water and clean nature, fights so hard against a measure that can keep their plastic packaging out of nature,” say Recycling Netwerk and Conscious Crew. “We therefore ask Spa to speak out positively in favour of a deposit scheme”.

The company, on the other hand, claims that all the bottles distributed are made of 100% recycled material. That is good, of course. But it is ironic that the company has to source the raw material for those bottles from countries with a deposit return scheme. For food safety reasons, 95% of the recycled PET used must come from food applications. This simply cannot be guaranteed through collection with the Belgian blue bag.

In the Netherlands alone, Spadel has an annual plastic footprint of 4,141 tonnes of plastic packaging. Of this, 2,634 tonnes is virgin plastic, according to Spadel’s response to a Greenpeace survey.

Background: Why exactly are we asking Spadel to give up its opposition to a deposit scheme?

Spadel is the number 1 market leader in bottled water in the Benelux, where it sells its brands Spa and Bru. In total, Spadel owns six brands of mineral and spring water: Spa, Bru, Watwiller, Carola, Brecon Carreg and, since 2017, the Bulgarian DEVIN. Spadel sells these brands in 22 different countries worldwide, making this company the regional market leader in Alsace and Wales and national market leader in Bulgaria.

As market leader, Spadel has both the responsibility and the power to make a difference.

In 2017, under the leadership of Managing Director Marc du Bois, the family business generated a turnover of €289.0 million and its net profit rose by 53.4% to €26.4 million. For these results, Spadel sold a total of 846.7 million litres of bottled water. In doing so, Spadel creates a large plastic footprint.

In 2016, more than 88% of the total number of bottles Spadel placed on the Dutch market were plastic bottles. In the Netherlands alone, Spadel therefore has an annual plastic footprint of 4,141 tonnes of plastic packaging. Of this, 2,634 tonnes is virgin plastic, according to Spadel’s responses to a survey by Greenpeace Netherlands. By way of comparison: Spadel places more virgin plastic on the Dutch market each year than the weight of the Atomium in Brussels or the total weight of around 439 Savannah elephants.

In Belgium, Spadel's plastic footprint is likely to be even larger, since Spadel sells the Bru brand here alongside Spa, and Belgians drink much more mineral and spring water in comparison: an average of 129 litres per person per year in Belgium compared to an average of 22 litres per person per year in the Netherlands. In 2016, the 440 million litres of beverage bottled for the Spa brand in Belgium already accounted for a plastic footprint of between 7,744 tonnes and 9,680 tonnes of single-use plastic packaging.

Furthermore, all the plastic bottles Spadel places on the market in the Netherlands and Belgium are for single use. In Belgium, this disposable bottle can end up in three ways. The PET bottle is collected together with many other plastics in the blue bag, after which it is downcycled; thrown into a public bin or cleared up by the cleaning service, after which it ends up in the incinerator; or the plastic bottle ends up as litter and eventually joins the growing plastic soup.

That the last scenario is not unlikely is proven by a Dutch study showing that the Spa brand is at number 2 of the most commonly found plastic bottles in litter by brand. As a beverage producer, Spadel also contributes by far the most to Dutch litter of all water brands found, with a share of over 21%.

It is remarkable that Spadel has not yet spoken out in favour of a deposit scheme. Besides the fact that Spadel portrays itself as a company with a heart for the environment and nature, Spadel has formulated several objectives where a deposit scheme would be a logical or even necessary tool.

Spadel says it wants to reduce its ecological footprint

Since 2017, Spadel has had 6 production sites across 4 countries (Belgium, France, Wales and Bulgaria). The company sells its drinks in 22 different countries. These filled bottles not only travel long distances in the country where the drink is bottled, but even cross national borders. This transport is one of the factors determining the large ecological footprint of bottled water compared to tap water. The total carbon footprint of the Spadel Group in 2016 was 102 kilotonnes of CO2 equivalent. Logistics accounted for 22% of this footprint, and production site activity was responsible for 20%. Combined, however, this is still less than the CO2 equivalent Spadel emits for its packaging and ingredients: packaging material causes 55% of the total carbon footprint of the Spadel Group. In 2016, this was 56.1 kilotonnes of CO2-eq. A 2009 study showed that the ecological footprint and carbon footprint of bottled water is on average 300 times higher than that of tap water.

With a deposit return scheme, the company can make great strides in reducing its ecological footprint. A deposit scheme will make a larger, pure stream of recycled PET available. This will reduce the use of virgin materials. Furthermore, fewer plastic bottles will end up in the incinerator. As Spadel states in its Sustainable Business Report 2015-2016, the use of recycled PET simply leads to a lower CO2 footprint, and by 2020 Spadel wants to be completely carbon-neutral.

Spadel aims for “optimal collection of its packaging in uniform material streams”

The trade association for bottled water to which Spadel is also affiliated, the European Federation of Bottled Waters, announced on 15 May 2018 that by 2025 the bottled water industry in Europe wants to collect an average of 90% of its PET bottles in order to make new PET bottles from them, among other things.

Such collection rates are only achieved in countries with a deposit scheme, such as Norway. In addition, collection via the blue bag does not provide the uniform material stream desired by Spadel. Therefore, the plastic collected with the current blue bag does not meet the requirements for making new bottles. Only with a deposit return scheme is the purity of the PET raw material guaranteed and can bottles be made again from the collected material.

Spadel states it wants to prevent litter

“Spadel strives to ensure that none of its packaging ends up in the environment, not on land and not in the oceans,” is a powerful statement Spadel made in response to the Greenpeace survey.