Nalgene Bottle Production Completes Conversion to Certified 50% Recycled Material

Nalgene Outdoor announced that as of January this year, it had completed conversion of its manufacturing process for reusable bottles to Eastman’s Tritan Renew, a certified 50% recycled material by the mass balance method of determination.

Widely used to describe recycled content, the mass balance method involves tracking the amount of recycled material entering and leaving the production process and using these figures to calculate the average recycled content in the product.

The reusable bottles made with recycled material are expected to both replace single use bottles and help divert waste plastics from landfills.  The process of converting to Tritan Renew, a copolyester, began in 2020. According to the company, it has re-purposed more than 2.35 million pounds of plastic waste since that time, and anticipates using 1.5 million pounds of recycled material each year now that the conversion is complete.

Nalgene bottles have been made using Tritan since 2008, when many brands switched away from using polycarbonate over public health concerns surrounding BPA content.

Nalgene Outdoor is based in Rochester, NY and owned by Thermo Fisher Scientific. The company sources and makes its bottles within the United States.