First, it is worth saying the amount of plastic that goes into a bottle has been drastically reduced over the last few years. A typical 500ml bottle of Wenlock Spring used to contain 25g of plastic but thanks to new manufacturing techniques, they now use half that amount. But the company wants to move beyond that and use recycled plastic in the bottles themselves.

100% recycled plastic

The aim is to use 50% recycled plastic, rising to 100% eventually. But it is not easy and indeed makes no sense from a financial point of view as the company says a bottle containing recycled plastic will actually cost them 20% more.

There are aesthetic difficulties with using recycled plastic in this country too. The stream of plastic we collect for reuse is made of plastics of many colours and that can give a browish tinge to bottles that use it. However Wenlock Spring is hopeful a new process will give its bottles a blueish tinge with which it believes consumers will be happy.