FAQ’s

If you can’t find the answer to your question here, please email question@belu.org or call 0870-240 61 21.

Q: What does Belu mean?
A: The beauty of water. Bella, Bellissimo, Belu…
Q: What are bio-bottles made of?
A: Bio-bottles are made from corn but could equally well be made from potatoes, rice, beetroot, bio-mass or pretty much any carbohydrate or sugar. The corn goes through a fermentation and distillation process similar to making corn whisky and is reduced to a monomer called lactic acid (which you can also find in ice cream and pickles). This lactic acid is then spun, linked into polymer chains and moulded into bottles.
Q: Can I eat a bio-bottle?
A: We advise against it. It could be done in theory but only after it has been composted at which point it isn’t very appetizing.
Q: Why doesn’t the bio-bottle degrade on the store shelf?
A: The bio-bottle will only biodegrade under certain conditions–a combination of high heat, humidity and micro organisms—not the conditions found in your typical shop.
Q: Is the cap compostable?
A: There is no corn cap yet. Until there is, please recycle the cap with the rest of your household plastic.
Q: Can I “home compost” the bottle?
A: You can but it’s not easy. For more details visit the “what do I do with my bio-bottle” page of our website.
Q: Is the bio-bottle recyclable?
A: Yes. In fact, where a PET bottle can only be made out of 25% recycled material a bio-bottle can be made out of 100% recycled material
Q: Can I put them in my recycle bag at home?
A: Yes, please do.
Q: Will they contaminate the existing recycling streams?
A: As long as bio-bottles make up less than 1% of all plastics they won’t affect the quality of recycled products. In addition, roughly 10% of recycling centres in the UK have machines that can sort bio-bottles from PET and HDPE bottles. With landfill taxes rising, we expect the rest to be installing them soon too.
What will further hasten waste companies to sort bio-bottles is if it makes them money. Belu is helping make this happen by buying back bio-bottles to make into cool stuff. But we still need to get enough bio-bottles into circulation to make it worth their time. Here we could use your help. The more people that choose compostable bottles, the more businesses that will use them and the sooner recycling companies will sort them in earnest. On this point, Innocent Smoothies is on the verge of launching compostable bottles, so why not buy Innocent if you are buying a Smoothie.
As with any innovation, the bio-bottle represents the first step on a journey. Just as there was no recycling system in place for PET when it was introduced 30 years ago, bio-bottles are slightly ahead of our time. But there is no question that this journey is worth it. We have endured over 75 years of toxic plastic pollution and the end is nearly in sight.

Q: What can you make from recycled bio-bottles?
A: Lots of things. We have already seen beer glasses and plant markers, more to come on this!
Q: What size bottles does Belu come in?
A: In glass we have 330ml and 750ml Still and Sparkling. Our bio-bottles are currently available in 500ml singles and 6-packs.
Q: Who decides on which water projects to support?
A: We are open to all good ideas and have largely selected our projects based on the advice of the water experts at WaterAid. If you have any good ideas, feel free to email them to us.
Q: How do you pronounce Belu?
A: Belloo or Blue will do.