100% Percent Recycled

You have to admire ambitious goals. The Naked Juice company announced today that it will be the first nationally distributed brand to use 100% recycled bottles.

This is a company that believes. "If you were plastic, wouldn't you like to come back as a Naked Juice bottle? With the new Naked reNEWabottle, consumers can reduce, reuse, recycle ... reincarnate!" said Mikel Durham, general manager of Naked Juice.

By 2010 the company plans to have its entire product line transitioned to the post-consumer recycled bottles.

If you are wondering what these PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles are made of, it turns out they are in fact made from other bottles. The PET bottles are plastic coded #1, which are easily recycled, according to the company.

Now just in case you were looking for the part where we demonstrate how many cars will be taken off the road by this sustainable manufacturing practice, here it is. The initial 32 ounce bottle transition reduces virgin plastic consumption by 1 million pounds per year and oil use by 8,192 barrels every year -- the equivalent of taking 497 cars off of the road.

Not enough cars you say. OK. When Naked Juice finishes transitioning its entire line, virgin plastic consumption will be reduced by 8.1 million pounds per year, saving 57,000 barrels of oil every year - the equivalent of taking 3,460 cars off of the road!

The company is involved in other green efforts as well. Last year the company moved to a new facility that meets the criteria for LEED certification and in April they teamed up with the Rainforest Alliance for sustainable fruit procurement.

And because I can't resist sharing this type of information, the company was founded and first marketed towel-to-towel ( I personally don't remember studying that at Univ. of Michigan Business School) on the beaches of Santa Monica, Calif in 1983.