After years of research and development, sustainable beverage company Cove is introducing its biodegradable bottled water next month in Erewhon stores in California.
As rising eco-consciousness has put more pressure on food and beverage manufacturers to dump plastic packaging, in favor of more sustainable solutions, brands have offered various attempts at more sustainable solutions, including recycled PET, aluminum cans, ocean-bound plastic and reusable bottles. But since 2018, California-based Cove has been working to develop a truly revolutionary innovation with the potential to address systemic sustainability and recycling challenges: a plastic-free, biodegradable bottle.
Cove’s bottles are made with polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), a polymer created by chemical supplier RWDC Industries that is made from restaurant-sourced excess cooking oils. PHA will dissolve in water or soil over five years, or 90 days in industrial settings, and is non-toxic. The ink printed on the bottles is made from algae and the water is sourced from a California purification plant.
However, PHA’s structural complexity has made it difficult to create a stable product that won’t melt or break in extreme temperatures. Cove has repeatedly pushed back launch dates, twice missing scheduled rollouts in February 2019 and Q1 2021 due to various reasons including difficulty processing the finished bottles, supplier commercialization delays and pandemic and supply chain related disruptions. But with a December 1 launch into Erewhon, the water is finally hitting shelves, retailing for $2.99 per bottle.
In an email to BevNET, Cove founder and CEO Alex Totterman said the company intends to focus on California and direct-to-consumer sales for at least its first months on the market. In the coming months, Totterman said Cove intends to launch with “mission-aligned and innovative retailers” across multiple channels including quick service restaurants, health and wellness stores, hospitality, colleges and universities, independent retailers and events and festivals.
“We are focusing our messaging around the fact that this is a real answer to the plastic pollution problem,” Totterman wrote. “This is a window into what the future of consumer goods can look like from production to end-of-life. This is the world’s first biodegradable water bottle — completely plastic-free, renewable and circular.”
In recent years bottled water startups have sought to introduce more sustainable packaging options into the category, including carton-packaged brands like Boxed Water and Flow, reusable aluminum bottles as produced by companies like PATH and Proud Source Water, and recyclable cans – a format spearheaded by Liquid Death which this year has raised around $145 million over two funding rounds with a valuation of $700 million.
Consumers are also responding to these sustainable alternatives to brands using single-use PET; Liquid Death, which has made its slogan “Death to Plastic” a rallying cry for sustainability, is expected to surpass $130 million in sales this year.
PHA as a packaging format is still young, but Cove isn’t the only company exploring its potential. Georgia-based bioplastic company Danimer Scientific has been developing straws and candy wrappers among other goods from PHA, but was also accused last year of overstating the polymer’s biodegradability, with some calling the company’s claims “greenwashing.”
However, Cove’s source materials have been approved by European biodegradable certification body TÜV Austria, and the use of PHA is expected to grow in the coming years; recent report by market research firm Data Bridge projected the global PHA market will have a 5.4% CAGR between 2022 and 2029.
Cove itself is also well funded, raising around $20 million since 2018, and is backed by a slate of institutional and celebrity investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff, James Murdoch, singer Ellie Goulding, music producer Diplo and holding company Palm Tree Crew, among others.
According to Totterman, the company is now focused on scaling production to meet demand from retailers, stating the brand has “had a lot of inbound investor interest in the run-up to launch.”
Operating from its 25,000 square foot production facility, Cove’s team currently is almost exclusively composed of engineers and production staff, Totterman said. As the long-awaited launch arrives, he said the company is beginning to hire new employees to “scale up the commercial side of the business.”
Erewhon is further supporting the brand by allowing customers to deposit their used Cove bottles into compost bins at its stores.
“Erewhon has celebrated the amazing benefits of naturally grown foods and the importance of preserving the earth for more than 50 years and continues to lead the way in conscious consumption today,” said Vito Antoci, EVP of Erewhon Markets, in a press release. “When we were introduced to Cove, we were incredibly excited to be part of this innovative and potentially world-changing moment for CPG – the world’s first fully biodegradable water bottle is something we are very proud to be launching at Erewhon.”