What is plant-based plastic?

Most plastic is fossil fuel-based—made from oil or natural gas. The plastic used to make our smoothie bottles starts as sugarcane juice.

Once sugarcane is grown, the juice is extracted, fermented and distilled into ethanol. The ethanol is then dehydrated to form ethylene and polymerized into high-density polyethylene (HDPE), also known as #2 plastic.

The resulting product is virtually indistinguishable from other #2 plastic, and it's made from renewable plants that consume CO₂ as they grow.

What are the environmental benefits of plant-based plastic?

Sugarcane is a renewable resource, unlike petroleum or natural gas—the sources of most plastic. Further, the very act of growing plants reduces the amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in our atmosphere.

The sugarcane-based HDPE (#2 plastic) used for our bottles offsets CO₂ emissions, compared to petroleum-based HDPE, which releases CO₂ into the atmosphere, contributing to global climate change. With the switch from petroleum-based plastic to plastic made from sugarcane, we reduced our CO₂ emissions from our bottles by 65%. Our carbon footprint.

The sugarcane used to make our bottles is cultivated without the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This sugarcane is all grown in Brazil, where GMO sugarcane is prohibited by federal law. More about GMOs.

Why use sugarcane?

The technology and facilities to make plastic from plants are new and limited, and sugarcane is now the only plant being used on a large scale to make #2 plastic. We expect to someday see #2 plastic made from many different types of plants. As new technologies emerge, we'll examine them to determine which materials and processes are best for our use.