In September 2018, German start-up Share (Berlin; www.share.eu) became the first company in Germany to use only disposable PET bottles made from 100% recyclate for its bottled water – see Plasteurope.com of 25.02.2019. Share’s water is now also available in reusable containers made with 35% recyclate in the on-board restaurants of Deutsche Bahn’s (Berlin; www.deutschebahn.com) long-distance trains. “The reuse of bottles is a larger issue when it comes to implementation. We put consumer safety first, which is why we are approaching higher amounts with caution,” a Share spokesperson told Plasteurope.com.

The start-up provides the German railway operator with 2.3m half-litre bottles per year, which could cut up to 38 t of plastics compared to the same amount of reusable bottles with the same weight and containing no recyclate. Plastipak’s (Plymouth, Michigan / USA; www.plastipak.com) European plants provide the preforms for both Share’s single-use and multi-use PET bottles. Because food-grade polypropylene recyclate is currently not yet available, the closures are made with virgin material.

Share expects an average of 15 rounds for the reusable bottles, which are produced and filled by Rhenser Mineralbrunnen (Rhens / Germany; www.rhenser.de). The start-up takes this figure from a study on the use and recycling of PET in Germany commissioned by Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU, Berlin; www.nabu.de) and conducted by the Institut für Energie- und Umweltforschung (ifeu, Heidelberg / Germany; www.ifeu.org). The spokesperson said, “It is certainly possible to refill [the bottles] up to 25 times.”

For every product sold – including bottled water, liquid soap and granola bars, among others – Share provides a product of the same value to a person in need. The company expects the water sales on board the Deutsche Bahn trains to finance up to 15 well construction projects per year.