The choice of recyclable and recycled PET for our hydrolat bottles.

This is a question you often ask us, and we thank you for it. It's a legitimate one, and testifies to a genuine concern for quality and ecology, values we place at the heart of our distilling business.

For a long time, the equation seemed simple: glass = quality and protection, plastic = compromise.

However, if we made the considered choice of recycled and recyclable PET (rPET), it's because the full analysis is far more nuanced. It's not a compromise, but a search for the best possible balance in line with our requirements. Our approach is based on an inseparable triptych:

  1. Intrinsic product quality,
  2. Real ecological impact,
  3. Human impact.

1. It all starts with quality: the secret of a hydrolat that protects itself

Before we even talk about the bottle, let's talk about what we put inside. A hydrolat's ability to keep well depends above all on its quality, its "vital force". Our requirements in this area are twofold.

Firstly, a distillation of excellence. A top-quality hydrolat is a "living" and naturally stable product:

  • A 1:1 distillation ratio: 1 kg of fresh plants to obtain 1 liter of hydrolat. This high concentration of aromatic molecules gives it natural antifungal and antibacterial properties.
  • An acidic pH: Careful distillation ensures a low pH, creating an environment where micro-organisms cannot thrive.

Secondly, absolute purity right through to bottling. Distilling an exceptional product is not enough; you have to preserve that perfection every second. That's why we've implemented a drastic hygiene process. From the still to the filling machine, our hydrolat circulates only in tanks and pipes that have been thoroughly cleaned and steam sterilized. This requirement, the signature of our expertise, guarantees irreproachable microbiological purity and eliminates any risk of contamination.

The direct consequence of this dual requirement is fundamental: our hydrolats are so stable and pure that they need no preservatives. This total absence of additives gives them food-grade quality, a guarantee of safety and naturalness ensuring that you can use them with complete confidence, whether on the skin or for internal use (cooking, drinking...).

This is what then enables us to choose the smartest bottle for it, not the heaviest.

2. Ecological impact: weight, carbon's number one enemy

Before comparing the two materials, it's important to clarify what rPET is. PET stands for Polyethylene Terephthalate, a food-grade plastic that's perfectly safe, inert and robust. But the "r" before it changes everything: it stands for "recycled". This means that our bottles are made from existing PET plastic (old bottles collected, sorted and processed). Rather than extracting new oil resources to make virgin plastic, we use a material from the circular economy. This choice to reuse what already exists is a pillar of our ecological commitment.

Let's now analyze its impact compared with glass:

Criteria

Glass vial

rPET flask (our choice)

The Advantage

Weight and Transport

Very heavy. Transporting it (from factories to us, from us to you) consumes a lot of fuel and emits a lot of CO2.

Extremely lightweight. Its carbon impact linked to transport is up to 70% lower.

rPET

Manufacturing

Using recycled plastic avoids drawing on fossil resources and consumes much less energy than manufacturing virgin plastic.

rPET

Recycling

Infinitely recyclable, which is a major advantage.

Fully recyclable. Today's recycling channels are very efficient.

Equality

The verdict is clear: on the most alarming criterion for our planet, the carbon footprint, rPET is a far more virtuous choice.

3. Human impact: thinking about our teams at the distillery

This aspect is often invisible to the consumer, but essential to us. Behind each bottle, there are men and women. Handling hundreds of bottles a day, filling them, labeling them, boxing them... The choice of material has a direct impact on the health and safety of our teams:

  • Preventing arduous work: a glass bottle carton weighs kilos more than its rPET equivalent. This choice drastically reduces the heavy loads carried on a daily basis and prevents musculoskeletal disorders (MSD).
  • Safety: rPET is virtually unbreakable. It eliminates the risk of cuts and product loss due to breakage, a common incident with glass in the production environment. And in your bathroom, it's better to have a PET bottle on your stand than a glass one.

Choosing rPET also means making a socially responsible choice for the well-being of those who make your products with passion.

And what about storage?

We're back where we started. Thanks to the exceptional stability of our hydrolats, a bottle made of food-grade tinted rPET offers perfectly suited protection for their entire shelf life. It effectively protects them from UV and its oxygen barrier is more than enough to ensure that your product will remain fresh, active and intact for well over a year, as our experience and yours prove.

Preservation beyond the visible

Beyond physico-chemical analysis, we know that hydrolats are vibratory products. It's essential for us to preserve not only their molecules, but also their "energy footprint". We have gone so far as to measure the energetic radiation of our hydrolats over long periods of storage (methods inspired by the Kyllian effect and other bioenergetic techniques). The results are clear: our hydrolats packaged in rPET show no alteration in this respect. This confirms that our bottles do not interfere with the deep vitality of our products.

A coherent choice

As you can see, our choice of the rPET bottle is not a trivial one. It is the fruit of a global reflection that refuses to sacrifice one issue for another.

It represents the perfect point of balance between:

  • Product quality, ensured by exceptional hydrolats.
  • Ecological responsibility, with the lowest carbon footprint.
  • Social responsibility, with respect for our teams.

We are proud of this choice, which embodies our values as a whole. And we hope that these explanations will help you understand our approach and share our conviction.

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